No APU No Air?
 

This is for all you out there who are dense. Unless the APU is INOPERABLE You have no excuse to leave me an AC that is stupid hot from the time you left and when I said hello in the jet bridge.
It makes me want to punch a puppy!
On another note I'd say if you don't wear your lanyard at the same time this happens I hope you get Pink Eye!!

What a low blow to come on here and complain rather than being a professional and taking it to pro standards. Be the bigger person and pursue the professional way to handle this situation!!

Well, he is right. Ground stations do not seem to be hooking up ground air anymore, and when they do, it's not good enough for the hot summer sun.

And while we're at it, why are people powering the aircraft with the GPU when the APU is already running? I get that it saves 4 tablespoons of gas per hour, but I've already lost count of how many times the ground crew has pulled the GPU without asking and sent the airplane into Spaz Mode.

Then that is a larger issue than just the minute amount of fuel, its a systemic safety issue having potential negative consequences that needs to be addressed via a safety report to R.E. If you have "lost count" and not submitted a safety report (maybe you already have), then you are part of the problem that isn't being fixed.

Keeping in mind we got an email from the Chief Pilot a few months ago about pilots not adhering to the limitation of APU bleed on with ground air hooked up. Would you bet a NOI that a pilot would not get in trouble, if he left the bleed on and ground crew finally hooked up the external air, after they left?

Its a slippery slope. That pilot does not know when that plane is going back out and if he lets it sit with the APU bleed on for some time, he is only opening himself up to trouble if/when the rampers decide to do their job and hook the air up.

I hate a hot airplane too but the larger issues are ground crews who don't hook the air up and the 50% of air carts that don't cool.


Having the GPU on while the APU is proving that sweet bleed air helps reduce the load on our APUs. If we are going to run the APU for an hour to keep the plane cool, we should be reducing the load on it with the external power. Who wants to fly a plane with a deferred APU, not this guy.

As far as ground crew yanking the external power on their own, sounds like the same group that won't hook the air up. Im sensing a common thread here with our ground personal, lack of training and caring about their job.

You sound surprised by this; as in you may not fly that much.....

I don't buy this "causes undue stress" argument for a second. These things were designed, built, and tested to do their job. They are designed to operate in extreme cold temperatures. They are designed to provide electrical loads while on fire. They can certainly provide 2 things simultaneously on the ground.

But...but..but...but...but...but...but.. THE FUEL SAVINGS!!!. :rolleyes:

False. No names, tail numbers, flight numbers, dates or stations. Just a general observation.

Meh...

It's literally a 1 minute process to start it back up... Flippin crybaby. Unless it's Vegas or somewhere else that is smoldering hot I turn it off. Let the next guy decide if/ when the apu air is needed.

Actually none of this would be an issue if our ground crew plugged the power in and turned on WORKING cool air when we park. That right there would save the company $20 million a year. But they'd rather cut costs than invest wisely.

On a recent trip I actually had a ground guy who hopped on board as we were getting ready to leave the cockpit, and he wanted to let us know that "his people" were really hustling to hook up ground air immediately, and since we had turned the bleed air on right away (100+ temps that day), he wanted to let us know and maybe look out the window to see if his guys were hustling the big yellow tube over before we pooked in the button.

He wasn't giving us grief, just taking pride in what his guys were doing.

That guy will be working for southwest in a couple months. Spirit doesn't know how to retain good employees. It's refreshing to see that kind of hustle every once in a while.

Spot on! This company would rather hire a new employee in any position (pilot, FA, agent, ramper, etc....) to keep their precious CASM-ex down, than keep an existing good one for a premium who want to make passengers happy and see the company succeed.... Sad. Up until a few moths ago, in their investor presentation slides, they claimed juniority as a benefit to the company.....

So are you waiting for all the passengers to deplane? Otherwise you are a terrible human being. Let's not forget your crew members in the tail...

Well if I know it's going to heat up like an oven I'm not going to kill the bleed and walk off. But sometimes yeah. If it gets up to 76 degrees by the time the last pax gets off then no big deal. If the FAs are staying in the plane I will leave them with some AC. Each situation is its own. Im just saying that Im not going to let the bleed air run for two hours on an empty plane solely for the purpose of handing it to the next guy at a the perfect temperature.

I'm not in the business of breaking limitations. If I leave the bleed goes off in case at some point the ground crew actually hooks up air. If they haven't hooked up air and it's hot out I'll wait until the plane is almost empty to leave and turn the bleed off

Good God, this is not complicated! Its about communications. Want to leave the APU and air on?... "OPS, We still have the APU and air on, please contact the ground crew and tell them NOT to hook anything up"........As a back up, put your safety vest on, go outside, talk with the lead--and tell him/her not to hook anything up...a simple 2 minute process...And if you really want to get jiggy......As you leave the gate, let the gate agent know "hey, I've contacted OPS to tell the gound crew AND told the ground crew myself not to hook up anything as the APU is running with air. Can you please tell the incoming crew this, thank you."

Don't tip the van driver or keep the airplane cool in the summer time.

I swear I work with retards.

Nailed it...........
...

Turning on the APU bleed when it's hot isn't breaking a limitation. How in the h... are we responsible for what the ground crew does 20 min after I leave. It's ridiculous and who says we have to wait around until the pax are off. I'm done sweating and giving this place free time. If you take a plane from me it will be ice cold as a courtesy for the next crew.

I thank you.
I always do and will continue to look after our crews and passengers.

Damn skippy, and if I'm commuting I'm the first one out the door. If they ramp guys can't be trained or are to dumb to understand that if there is a lot of noise and hot air coming from under the plane, then don't hook up air, well MX can fix it if it breaks.

On another note, anyone heard from the FA's on some of their new training? It's now ok for pax to congregate in the fwd galley. Brilliant

I agree with you. I cannot control what the ground crew does after I leave but I have to assume they know how to do their job and it's not my job to micromanage them especially if I'm on my way out.

We have a limitation to not use bleed air and ground air at the same time. We have a Cheif pilot email or read file (not sure which) stating they are witnessing this limit being broken. The AOM sop is also to shutdown the APU when ground power is applied. The assumption would be that air is coming if they have just plugged in the GPU. If I'm there I will obviously leave the APU running til the ground air is applied in case they don't do it.

A lot of things we do defy common sense but that's how they want it done so that's how I do it. If they want to officially tell us that ground crews will no longer be applying external air automatically (which seems to be the cultural norm these days) then I'll be happy to walk away from the plane with the bleed running. They haven't said that yet and I don't make up my own procedures on purpose. They say fly it like you own it but that's not in any manual and they will not hesitate to hang you with that rope. If I owned it I'd leave with the bleed supplying air.

[QUOTE=Qotsaautopilot;2386307]I agree with you. I cannot control what the ground crew does after I leave but I have to assume they know how to do their job and it's not my job to micromanage them especially if I'm on my way out.

We have a limitation to not use bleed air and ground air at the same time. We have a Cheif pilot email or read file (not sure which) stating they are witnessing this limit being broken. The AOM sop is also to shutdown the APU when ground power is applied. The assumption would be that air is coming if they have just plugged in the GPU. If I'm there I will obviously leave the APU running til the ground air is applied in case they don't do it.

A lot of things we do defy common sense but that's how they want it done so that's how I do it. If they want to officially tell us that ground crews will no longer be applying external air automatically (which seems to be the cultural norm these days) then I'll be happy to walk away from the plane with the bleed running. They haven't said that yet and I don't make up my own procedures on purpose. They say fly it like you own it but that's not in any manual and they will not hesitate to hang you with that rope. If I owned it I'd leave with the bleed supplying air.[/QUOTE

U are just wrong.. it's the culture around here..gmafb..you probably single engine taxi and lave the headsets unplugged also..

When I walk on the plane and its either to cold or to hot, I turn the apu on, call ground ops and have them disconnect external air and power... problem solved.