Hmm. Tough brake.

The arctic...where the Eagles soar, and the Hiumbolts waddle.

Mookie

I was told that in some cases the Captain landing only airport is due to insurance restrictions.

In some instances that makes no sense. I have been on an MD-80 jumpseat where the FO had more MD-80 PIC time than the Captain had total time.

I just never understood why Alaska doesn't let the FOs fly out of SNA when they can do most of the Arctic flying.

Yeah. I never meant it made sense.

Thinking weakens the team...

As a very senior F/O, (flown in and out of ADQ for 17 years), I flew with a new to ANC Capt who had never once in his life been to ADQ. His Arctic qual took him to OTZ and OME which also checks the box for ADQ. So it's raining and its windy and its going to be a RNP to rwy 36. New Capt flys it as required by our rules. It was the worst landing that I have ever seen. I was way to slow in hindsight as I was reaching for the throttles and calling for a go around just as we touched down, then it got sporty...
Stupid rules certainly reduced the level of safety on that airplane that day. I'm always in favor of letting the crew use all the tools in their tool box. Who should better decide who's leg it is? The butts on the sheep skin or the guy 1500 miles away behind a desk who has not flown the line in 10 years?

There is some history behind it. Originally, AS flew MD-80s out of SNA. However, the service was limited to Cat A slots due to noise restrictions. AS wanted to expand their service out of SNA since its the highest yield airport in the systems.

With the acquisition of the 737-400s, AS proved to the airport that they could fly noise limited AA and E slots IF they used a "noise abatement" procedure. Remember, the Cat E slots are turboprop slots. So, to get them, AS had to run the SNA service through OAK to limit weight and the subsequent noise over the monitors.

Unfortunately, the procedure (at the time) required the Captain to do some fairly precise flying while the F/O was busy doing a lot of things with the Mode Control Panel.

Since the advent of LNAV/VNAV on the NG, the high workload has been reduced a lot.

There really is no reason F/Os can't fly the departure these days except, perhaps, consistency and standardization.

The article mentioned the pilots contract up April 1. I haven't seem anything on the boards about expected raises. Are there any rumors or discussions about contract specifics outside of scope?

They've been talking, but no details are out about numbers.

Taking care of your employees and customers pays huge dividends. Classy acts are hard to follow therefore getting lost is easy to do!