Cockpit Safety
 

This post applies to Pinnacle, but I would guess things like this happen at many airlines.

Is anyone concerned about Cockpit Safety at Pinnacle with all the things that are going on? The whole contract(violations and lack of a new contract) and pass travel deal has caused a lot of external pressures on the flight crews.

Along with all the memo's about being fatigued/sick/absent/Junior Assigns/Extensions/ACARS.

How about the ACARS messages for the CA/FO/FA to call crew scheduling. How does this have anything to do with the current flight that is operating? Just another non-essential item added to the back of the crews mind. Now the CA/FO is ****ed because they don't get to go home anymore...

These are all distractions that the crew does not need. I think these distractions are causing the crews to lose focus on the task at hand and could possibly cause a bad situation down the road.

Does anyone else think the company is impairing our ability to do our job safely with all these distractions they're causing?

What are your thoughts?

personally i think the worrying and constant brain puzzling of commuting to and from home is a big strain and tiring in itself. flying the plane is enjoyable. but not anything else ! haha

i stopped paying attention to the company over 3 years ago. i have a lot of red blocs on my crewtrac, but thats ok
if i am sick, i call in sick. if i am fatigued, i call in fatigued. if i get extended i refuse the extension. if i get junior manned, i get a junior man refusal. eventually they just leave you alone.

If I get an acars from crew scheduling during a critical phase of flight I submit a flight safety report.

Whats ACARS?

(Sarcasm intended, I fly a POS Saab with as much technology as a microwave oven, but I still love her.)

That is not a bad idea at all. I think everyone should follow this habit.

And while you’re submitting it, I think you should print a copy for yourself and fax it into your state representative. Let them know what kind of crap is going on these days with regards to the scheduling practices.

Organization's can very easily cancel a furlough and stay a little on the fatter side to avoid extensions, junior assignments, etc, etc, but as we all know... there is a race for the bottom. Let your voice be heard.

Are your Saabs equipped with the archaic Universal FMS or are you all VORs and ADFs? And I'm pretty sure that a microwave oven is a step up in technology.

The other day I got an ACARS to call screw scheduling at around 12,000 ft. I wanted to reply back with "How does this pertain to the current phase of flight?"

I was thinking about filing flight safety reports for each one we get...Not sure how much good it will do. I would def file one if its during sterile cockpit.

Submit an ASAP report with a NASA form regarding the company violating sterile cockpit regulations with ACARS messages that are unrelated to the safety of your flight.

Better yet, get a real contract that stipulates that ACARS messages are not official crew notification. Then ASAP them each and everytime they do something stupid that endangers your flight. Oh, that's right.... all regionals are the same... aren't they now. More subtle nuances....

That has been my policy since day one. While still on probation, I called in fatigued, called in sick, and refused junior assignments. Sick and fatigue were not abusive, they were necessary. If everyone does this then we are good. They can't fire all of us. It only takes a few people actually accepting JA's and the rest of us look bad though.

No FMS of any kind. The closes we get to anything is hitting the DEV button to show a line of our chosen course on our EHSI, we can get really crazy and 2nd course the other guys line on ours.

But since we track ground based navs, the line will still move on the EHSI just like the ol 172

That's good old-fashioned flying...nothing wrong with that...I'm jealous! You should see these guys' faces when I flip it into green-needles HAHA They've been out of it so long, it's difficult to get back. Lord I hope they never suffer the emergency that is an FMS-failure ;)

Reminds me of the time I heard a RJ declare an emergency for a FMS failure. 100% serious

Heard of an ERJ that delcared an emergency after the AP malfunctioned after take-off from LGA too...Yikes!

That could be an emergency. How am I supposed to enjoy the view and drink my coffee if I have to actually fly the plane??? :rolleyes:

In all seriousness though, without knowing the situation an AP malfunction could be an emergency. It isn't responding to inputs from the crew, strong and erratic flight control movements, or won't disconnect are a few examples.

Oh come on, like a RJ pilot would really disconnect the AP at anytime above 200', right before landing. ;)

I don't think the OP's concerns are unique to Pinnacle. This kind of crap is happening all over the place. I think the worst safety issue is lack of cancellation pay. It encourages crews to fly unairworthy airplanes because if they write them up they get punished by having a turn (or in my most recent case an entire day of flying) canceled and losing the pay for those flights. When you're making poverty level wages already, you can bet a lot goes through your mind when you notice a maintenance issue that will effect your pay. Write it up and lose flying and you're gonna end up flying while really ****ed at the company for taking your money because you did your job. Don't write it up and you're flying an airplane that should have been fixed. Either way it's unsafe. I've already written safety reports about this and the fact that our company only allows one pilot (the pilot not flying) to have a chart in front of them.

I know a crew very well that had to file a report the other day because the PNF was doing piloty stuff like calling in range, getting weather, and briefing up the pax. In the meantime, the PF accidentally blew past the point they were supposed to turn because there had a miscommunication about where that point was. BANDS is 21miles from PSP and SETER 21 miles from PDZ. Pretty easy to see with a chart in front of you but not so much when the chart is on the other yoke and the mileage and VOR's are very similar. Anyway, point is that there are tons of safety issues at every airline that the pilots all know about and have told people about but nothing gets done. Nothing ever gets done until people die.

Waaawaawawawaaaaiiiiit a minute, they actually tell you you're NOT ALLOWED to look at a chart???? Are you kidding me? Who the hell thought that was a good idea? (And why are the feds not going nuts on them???)

Woahhhhhh..I know your not joking, and that is scary, that desk jockys can make a rule like that....hopefully that ASAP report will bring this to someones attention...Im curious would your union protect you if you got the carpet dance, or punished for not following that, is it just a recomendation or ...gasp(an op spec), and if it is how the heck did they get the feds to sign off on that one...can your PF not have an approach plate on their yoke during an approach?..all I can say is WOW, I think one could make the argument "Hey im using ALL available resources....yada yada...

While I agree that it is a crappy way to notify a crew, you do know that even the legacy carriers do it that way?

The PF can look at the chart before the approach or whatever we're doing but after that the chart goes to the PNF and the PF just asks the PF what's going to happen next. On my checkride, I basically drew the charts on my TOLD card so that I'd know what was happening and what the missed was going to be like. It's so stupid. We put an altitude into the preselect for the next segment of the approach. Once we get within 100 feet of that preselected altitude the PNF says "(altitude in preselect) captured" and the PF says "say next altitude." Guess what happens if the one guy who's looking at the chart gets that next altitude wrong. Maybe that wrong altitude will keep you too high or maybe it will step you down right into a mountain, I don't know. Point is you've just taken a two-person crew and effectively made it a one-person crew. They told us in ground school that it would be dangerous to have a chart in front of the PF because we don't have an autopilot and they'd take their eyes off the instruments...I kid you not. So yeah, the PF does get to look at the chart but once the approach has started, it's all 21 questions from there.

Our company is working on getting ASAP apparently so maybe once that is implemented then things will change. I know of a couple of crews that have gotten LOI's for busting altitude restrictions out of ONT on the prado7. Doubt it would have happened with a chart in front of the PF. For now I file NASA reports constantly and hope somebody notices.

I am not going to fly that approach without a chart in front of me! Have all the numbers before you cross the FAF, so you don't have to look at the chart unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. Not going to be asking the person next to me what's next! Both PF and PNF have a set of charts, normally. Who's going to know if you put one up on the yoke for yourself? We did not learn to fly like this, and I still definitely do not teach it that way. Old school pilot here.

Now, disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer/fed/checkairman/whatever... But, there's no way in hell I'm going to shoot any approach in ANY airplane without a chart that I can look at. This is perhaps the most asinine "rule" I've ever heard. They're putting lives in danger because they think you can't glance at a chart and fly an airplane at the same time? Now, I'm not telling you to bust regs or anything... But, if having that chart there will potentially save lives AND your license, you might want to keep it within an easy glance...

I fly part 91 now and we have only one set of charts in the plane. HOWEVER I run off a set of charts for the airports we routinely fly into. Probably not feasible for -121 ops but why both pilots don't have charts is cause for question.

The other issue was the 10-9 chart, airport layout. Being an old dog, I usually run off a 120-150% copy of the airport diagram if it is a major airport. Most ops are based on local knowledge and taxiing at night, in wx with reduced vis and just 1 chart.. just asking for trouble. :mad: