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kellwolf · April 9th, 2008, 20:56

Here's the run down for day three:

Went over last night's performance problem, which was pretty straight forward. Then we went over the company rules for alternates, more performance data dealing with PTOG, what we can use the closeout MGL for, XTOG and how we get the difference types of XTOGs (ie landing limit, flight plan limit, runway limit, climb limit, structural limit, etc).

Then one of the scheduling trainers came in to talk to us. She spent probably close to an hour to an hour and a half doing nothing but fielding questions. This coulda been a bloody mess, but she was professional, and it really helped us to see their side of the situation. Puts a different spin on things when you realize that over HALF of the schedulers we have right now have been on the job less than 6 weeks. Went over duty requirements, Whitlow rest requirements and what they can (and more importantly CAN'T) do to you on reserve. She was pretty honest about saying "They're gonna TRY to do this to you, but they're not supposed to. Don't let them. If you're getting pushed, ask for a supervisor, but do it nicely."

After lunch, one of the FAA inspectors came in to talk to us about ASAP and FOQA programs. He spent some time talking about PIC/Dispatch's joint responsibility, and he reminded us that the JOINT part of the responsibility ends when we push back from the gate. If we think something needs to happen....DO IT. Don't let dispatch try to talk you out of it. Once you block it, they're in a support role ONLY.

We got the risk assessment chart I mentioned yesterday and used it to evaluate the Traverse City accident from last year. That was pretty eye opening. Several things set up the link in that chain. Turns out the crew had been on duty for over 15 hours, the last time they'd eaten was 12 hours ago, they were fatigues, it was an IOE flight and the FO had less than 200 hours in type. All of that along with the weather conditions was listed on the risk assessment chart. In addition to that, there were some training issues to do with how to apply brakes on a contaminated runway. According to the chart, anything with a score higher than 25 is deemed too risky to dispatch. TVC's score? 53, and that was before they even left the gate.

We went over some of the good things that have come out since the ASAP program started. For example, we now know that most pilot deviation occur between 10 am and 2 pm. Why? Lack of food. As a response, the FAA is starting to put pressure on our management to make it easier for us to meet nutritional requirements. For a while, we had a serious problem of people landing with the thrust reversers not armed. Thanks to ASAP data and some tweaking, that dropped almost 80%. Heading deviations in DTW used to occur on average once a month. We haven't had one heading deviation in 8 months. Other trends that have been spotted thanks to ASAP and FOQA data is that a lot of our guys seem to be letting the automation fly the airplane. FMS errors are common, thus taking the airplane off course. Same with letting the airplane get too fast below 10,000 ft. One of the things that got me is what the FAA is doing to encourage participation in the program. If an ASAP is accepted (which it almost always is unless it's the result of an INTENTIONAL deviation), the company has a side letter with the union to not discipline the pilot as a result of what happened. Heck, the FAA and the company don't even know who the pilot was, when it was or what flight it was on. ALPA is the gatekeeper for that data, and they don't let that stuff go very easily. Even if you wind up with an administrative letter in your file, it rolls off in 24 months. Even better, if you filed an ASAP on it, it won't show up in your FAA record if another airline runs your record report as a result of an interview.

After that, we dove into radar usage. We talked about different techniques, what the radar will see and what it won't see. Bottom line: do what works for you. There's 1400 pilots at PCL, so there's probably 1500 ways to use the radar.

Tomorrow the folks from dispatch are coming to talk to us, and I THINK we'll all get to shadow a dispatcher for a while.

BTW, Stan. THIS:

http://www.icare.fr/en/FTD27_.php

the GFS I was talking about.

April 9th, 2008, 20:56	#32
kellwolf Old Skool Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 13,252	Re: Kellwolf's Upgrade Updates Here's the run down for day three: Went over last night's performance problem, which was pretty straight forward. Then we went over the company rules for alternates, more performance data dealing with PTOG, what we can use the closeout MGL for, XTOG and how we get the difference types of XTOGs (ie landing limit, flight plan limit, runway limit, climb limit, structural limit, etc). Then one of the scheduling trainers came in to talk to us. She spent probably close to an hour to an hour and a half doing nothing but fielding questions. This coulda been a bloody mess, but she was professional, and it really helped us to see their side of the situation. Puts a different spin on things when you realize that over HALF of the schedulers we have right now have been on the job less than 6 weeks. Went over duty requirements, Whitlow rest requirements and what they can (and more importantly CAN'T) do to you on reserve. She was pretty honest about saying "They're gonna TRY to do this to you, but they're not supposed to. Don't let them. If you're getting pushed, ask for a supervisor, but do it nicely." After lunch, one of the FAA inspectors came in to talk to us about ASAP and FOQA programs. He spent some time talking about PIC/Dispatch's joint responsibility, and he reminded us that the JOINT part of the responsibility ends when we push back from the gate. If we think something needs to happen....DO IT. Don't let dispatch try to talk you out of it. Once you block it, they're in a support role ONLY. We got the risk assessment chart I mentioned yesterday and used it to evaluate the Traverse City accident from last year. That was pretty eye opening. Several things set up the link in that chain. Turns out the crew had been on duty for over 15 hours, the last time they'd eaten was 12 hours ago, they were fatigues, it was an IOE flight and the FO had less than 200 hours in type. All of that along with the weather conditions was listed on the risk assessment chart. In addition to that, there were some training issues to do with how to apply brakes on a contaminated runway. According to the chart, anything with a score higher than 25 is deemed too risky to dispatch. TVC's score? 53, and that was before they even left the gate. We went over some of the good things that have come out since the ASAP program started. For example, we now know that most pilot deviation occur between 10 am and 2 pm. Why? Lack of food. As a response, the FAA is starting to put pressure on our management to make it easier for us to meet nutritional requirements. For a while, we had a serious problem of people landing with the thrust reversers not armed. Thanks to ASAP data and some tweaking, that dropped almost 80%. Heading deviations in DTW used to occur on average once a month. We haven't had one heading deviation in 8 months. Other trends that have been spotted thanks to ASAP and FOQA data is that a lot of our guys seem to be letting the automation fly the airplane. FMS errors are common, thus taking the airplane off course. Same with letting the airplane get too fast below 10,000 ft. One of the things that got me is what the FAA is doing to encourage participation in the program. If an ASAP is accepted (which it almost always is unless it's the result of an INTENTIONAL deviation), the company has a side letter with the union to not discipline the pilot as a result of what happened. Heck, the FAA and the company don't even know who the pilot was, when it was or what flight it was on. ALPA is the gatekeeper for that data, and they don't let that stuff go very easily. Even if you wind up with an administrative letter in your file, it rolls off in 24 months. Even better, if you filed an ASAP on it, it won't show up in your FAA record if another airline runs your record report as a result of an interview. After that, we dove into radar usage. We talked about different techniques, what the radar will see and what it won't see. Bottom line: do what works for you. There's 1400 pilots at PCL, so there's probably 1500 ways to use the radar. Tomorrow the folks from dispatch are coming to talk to us, and I THINK we'll all get to shadow a dispatcher for a while. BTW, Stan. THIS: http://www.icare.fr/en/FTD27_.php the GFS I was talking about. __________________ "I'm The Doctor, by the way. Run for your life!"