...and commuters to commute on!

Wow, a 28 year UAL F/A veteran girlfriend and all. Proof!

March was ramped up for Spring Breaks. If you read the bid packages info and or the SSC report regularly, you will see big swings in monthly block hours. SSDD.

Sled

Its the fleet sop to run the runway change checklist. It takes a while. 5 min if to perf wasnt requested prior, and about 2.5 if it was.
I was told once expect 28L, approaching the runway now 28R told tower I needed 5 min. They said fine. After programing told line up 28L. Told them needed 3 min to run checklist they said nevermind taxi across and hold 28R. It's required not optional to do the checklist like other fleets.

Good thing we're all single engine taxiing to cover the fuel burn to change a runway. Is it really that more complicated than any other Boeing or is this a case of lowest common denominator? It was a cringe worthy moment to listen to on tower.

Lowest common denominator. Remember Sparky's other nickname. Scabmobile....but with that thought, it could have been IOE too. Lots of training still going on.

Good point

The 787 is death by checklist.....If it has a checklist you WILL run it. That includes balancing fuel during single engine ops, and that checklist is the longest one you have ever seen 5-6 pages.

The only trick to the 787, I can't remember other fleets, is you have to turn the FDs off, reprogram everything, then get the FD back on.

As far as 320 hours being down could it be because the stage lengths are getting shorter? If it stays within 3hrs of a base all day hours drop.

First, I'm on the 787 and a runway change means one has to run an electronic checklist before going. Now I suppose we could just blast off on a runway not in the box, but good old FOQA will tattle on us.

Having done the checklist I assure all of you it adds about three minutes to the process and that assumes ACARS send the runway data for uploading. Yes we could get the data and hand enter it, but that's not the preferred method. These days every thing is uploaded.

On the 320 hours; the SSC did not have an explanation because a 1000 hours system wide drop for one month is huge. Essentially that's about 14 lines of flying or 28 less pilots. Someone check my math, you know math done in public.

A 1000 hour swing is not huge. Spread across the fleet that is a little less then 6.5 hours per aircraft for the month. Or .21 hours a day/aircraft. February 2017 had 42,965 hours for the Airbus fleet. So 1000 hours represents roughly 2.5%. If March block hours were higher then February, then its closer to a 2% drop. (March 2016 to April 2016 hours were flat for comparison sake) Not a huge swing.

If your math is correct that is an average of 2 lines per base. On a one month snapshot.

Wishing it was the other way and hours were increasing but the sky is not falling for the Airbus.