It's hot and my noggin hurts. Why?
 

I recently rode on a Mesa E175 and was one of the first to board the aircraft. The cabin was already warm. Nearing the end of boarding the cabin was a sweat box and multiple passengers were complaining. Ten minutes before departure the captain reached up, starts the apu, turns on the packs and walla, the cabin cools off.

So here are my questions to regional pilots across the board. Can you tell when YOUR cabin is uncomfortably warm? Do you brief your flight attendants to inform you if it's warm? If it is warm why do you wait to start the apu?

Summer is at our doorstep and our passengers deserve better.

Who doesn't turn the a few on the moment they walk onto the aircraft. I never understand when a guy just leaves It Off,

This isn't a regional thing. Had it happen multiple times on mainline too. Only excuse I can think of...lack of communication, taking APU usage policy overboard, poor situational awareness.

It's cool in the cockpit, if nobody tells me it's getting hot in the back I won't know.

I find it more often on mainline myself. Seems like most wait until exactly 10 minutes prior to turn on the APU.

Is it that hard to look at your cabin temp gauge? that apu should be burning all the time

Worse problem at mainline. Try being at the back of a mad dog in July with a "by the book Capt" that won't turn it on even though it's about 105 in the back 1/3 of that long skinny tube... While they sit up front with their windows open! Geesh!

Expressjet CRJ-2/7/9 pilots are the absolute worst with this. In the heat of summer or whatnot, they'll single-engine taxi with no APU and just stand parked at the gate with an engine running which slows down the ground handling and adds many bad molecules for them to breath. Oh yea, and the passengers melt in the aisle whilst begging to get off.

United is cracking down on APU usage, theres actually teams with trucks in ORD dedicated to that task, furthermore the data from the 175 is very accessible and shows the usage time. I can't tell you how many emails we've all received regarding this matter. 10 minutes prior to departure or "environmental conditions requiring it sooner"

Thank goodness 9E management gives us the green light to use it as we please for comfort. In the case of the 200, we crank it up around 10 minutes before we land. Of course we too have people that think their saving money and sacrifice comfort to run the engines longer.

Yes, mainline is not immune to this issue. I have found that it's a more common occurrence when dh'ing on the regionals. Is there pressure from those above the Captain advocating not to start the apu for any reason? Which leads to my next point.

United does have apu teams operating. I don't think they are going to override the Captain. This leads to Captain authority and safety of flight.

I'm all for saving fuel and apu run times but when multiple passengers are vocally complaining, it's time to reassess our priorities.

Why not stick your head up in the flight deck and ask?

Because the cockpit crew will have their feelings hurt.

Step in to inform the cabin is hot or ask what prevents him/her from starting the apu? The latter insinuates a degradation of captain's authority. As a passenger I shouldn't have to run to cockpit when the situation isn't being managed. Flight attendants do possess a basic level of communication skills correct?

It may be some left over conditioning from the fuel crisis days. We had some ridiculously stringent mandates to avoid all APU usage until just prior to pushback. To heck with passenger comfort. I would just cite passenger safety whenever someone would bother me about unauthorized APU usage. Sometimes ya just gotta insert common sense into the operation.

It only comes off as a degradation of captains authority if you approach the situation in a hostile fashion. If it was truely as bad as you say, I would have at least asked at the end of the flight. Like you said, our passengers deserve better.

Even a polite question insinuates. If a request to the flight attendant can't solve the issue, I frankly don't think I want to hear the "c"aptain's rationale.

200- The APU is on, it just sucks that much. MX never changes the PACK filters unless told by crews to do so. We had one good aircraft with airflow, but SkyWest took it.:rolleyes:

At PSA our ACARS in range has a special little message at the end.....

"APU use and single engine taxi compliance monitored".

Fantastic employer/employee relations over here.

Wadr what about captain's authority and support from the union?

Indeed they do. But almost 2 decades commuting now and 99% of it on mainline airplanes, it's NOT a regional thing. My favorite is when I'm commuting in uniform, getting wedged into my steerage middle seat, everyone is frantically turning their vents trying to get air. And it's my fault......

Yep, pretty much.

Yep, pretty much.

Yep, pretty much.

Once it gets above 70 outside the 200 is an oven even with the APU on. During the summer I start it on the decent and it stays on until after takeoff the next leg. And it still gets hot...only so much you can do.

So you complain on an anonymous board instead of offering some helpful advice at the source? Who cares if it insinuates? That crew is going to spend the next 3 days pulling the same thing every leg. Put those CRM skills to work!

I'm on this board because it reaches more people and trying to start a conversation. We're having it at mainline. Time for you to police your own. FO's need to advocate.

I never said it was a regional thing but nice attempt at deflection.

Wait...the APU has an off switch?

Big mainline airline management is imposing fines on regional partners if the APU is run on the ground for more then 30 minutes. Teams are on the ground standing around to monitor this.
The offending Captain then gets to explain to his CP why he did this.
Never mind the fact no pre-conditioned air will ever be routinely hooked up to an RJ when it pulls into the gate.
Enjoy your sweat box.

haha. sometimes the duct psi and pack psi are good but you can't feel sh17. Is that what a filter problem looks like?

blows. well, actually it doesn't. the recent change at 9e is that you can leave the apu running even if youre abandoning the aircraft for a new crew at the gate so long as an acars message is transmitted about it.

Simple solution to push back against corp. policies.

If/when you encounter a sweatbox, hit record on your cell phone and interview other pax. Shove your cell phone in the FA's face and ask her why the A/C isn't on when it's 85+ inside the cabin. Then upload to YouTube identifying the flight # and airline.

This practice will stop with a swiftness.

Note: don't do this while in uniform or if you can be identified. Better still is to simply suggest to some other pax to do this. The lemmings out there will be more than eager for the fame and attention it gets them.

I wasn't the only one.

But nice attempt to say how much regionals suck, when mainline sucks just as much and makes passengers lives miserable.

The aircraft I fly has a digital readout of the temperature on the EICAS. It's in Centigrade, but even us lowly regional guys can figure it out. With math.

This isn't an us versus them. We were having a conversation on this topic on the United forum. After dead heading the other day, I thought it was worthy to introduce it on this forum as well. Those who want to make it an us vs them are not part of the solution.

Comments about PSA's acars messages goes to the level of pilot pushing over safety and comfort.

Did you make a point on the forum, as well as in UAL section here about how BOTH mainline and UAX cabin temperature sucks at times?

Your ORIGINAL about "prover you wrong" was lost on me, sorry......

Do you love lamp?

Last I checked, the policy at the place I work at was that anytime the aft passenger door is closed, the APU "shall" be on.

Which mainline would this be? I have never heard anyone being called by the CP to explain his/her APU use. And unless the airplane is sitting at the gate for a few hours, I leave the APU running. I have also delayed passenger boarding if the airplane is to hot. I don't care how ****ed off the gate agents get. No one needs to sit in a 200 that is so hot that it causes possible physical issues.

Is that what S/E taxi means? All this time I thought it meant SouthEast taxi.

When you take it personally it makes it difficult to discuss it doesn't it.

What if the door is open and the cabin is hot?