And of course make sure the previous crew filled out the oil. If it's been more than 30 minutes from shut down, the oil gauges are no longer accurate so you must perform an engine run for maintenance (and annotate it in the logbook) to ensure there's enough oil. That's a limitation everyone seems to forget about. I get 2-3 tfp a month for this.

 

Even if it says 100? I like your thinking, im just seeing how many caps will be on board?

 

you’re the hero we all need. I gotta start looking at that more closely.

 

I'm based in Dallas. Been a reserve Cap over 4 years. I've been assigned 3 Sims on reserve. The horror!
Although, I must admit one of them was with that sawed off little prick of a ckam from Chicago. Wasn't awesome at all! Almost enough to make me afraid of Sims. Not quite though.

 

You're braver than me.

 

easy money brother. Makes me better too. No block time. Win-win-win!!

 

I've never gotten any push back on it from anybody. Doesn't matter if it's 100 or 0 or anything in between. The book lists the limitations for departure in AOM 3.8.4 and states "The above oil quantities are based on flight deck oil quantity indicator readings within 30 minutes of engine shutdown." If there's no reading from within 30 minutes of engine shutdown, the number isn't valid, no matter what that number may be.

They aren't even "recommended" levels, it has an L next to it. If you show up to a cold dark airplane and there are no numbers in the logbook from a pilot or maintenance, it's up to you if you want to follow the limitation and get a TFP for an engine run or if you or the captain want to put your certificate on the line in case a fed shows up to jump seat on your next flight.

I generally tell the captain about said limitation and that we need to do an engine run (never gotten push back, but I also don't imply that there's an option in how I tell them). If they don't know what I'm talking about, I point out the reference and tell them I do this all the time and to call maintenance to inform them that we'll be doing it after pushback and will call them afterwards for the numbers. We do it after push, then run the engines for 5 minutes, then shut them down and wait for the n2 to go down to less than around 5%, then call maintenance with the numbers and to conference in the info logbook entry (both on a fresh logbook page and in the oil and fuel logs). Then I call at the end of the day and have scheduling add the TFP to both my and my captain's board. Simple way to cover your butt against a random FAA inspector.

 

I find that telling a captain what to do with the airplane first thing in the morning on an originator and applying an obscure rule to pad my paycheck at the risk of delaying the flight is a great way to set the tone for the trip.

 

I am pretty sure if he pointed that out to me, I would be buying his drinks at the end of the day . A easy way to make 1 TFP.

 

Do you hesitate to tell the captain that you found a discrepancy on your walk around? Is checking engine oil levels an obscure rule? Funny, I thought that was literally on the checklist. I'm not telling them what to do with the airplane, I'm telling them of a discrepancy that could violate our certificates.