AirTran 717 ques

[nptguy]

Flew Airtran today , great flight as always!. One ques? Why do you bring up the flaps as we are pulling into the gate, while most airlines do that as soon as they taxi off the active. I see a lot of young faces on the flightdeck , where do you find most of the new guys coming from, what kind of time do they have etc. Keep up the good work Airtran!

 

[Ty Webb]

Flaps are 18 until the gate to keep those big hoovers from sucking up FOD.

Newhires may look young to you if you are old enough to be wearing those cataract-preventing "re-entry goggles" but I see a lot of grey in the right seat these days.

In this competitive market, the company is looking for a minimum of 500 PIC part 121, with most pilots having well over 5000TT and 1000 121 PIC. Plenty of furloughed major airline pilots, new milspec pilots, etc. in the post 9/11 classes.

Thanks for flying with us. The 717 is fun to fly, and represents a great safety inprovement over the older stuff, with EGPWS, Predictive windshear, full time autothrottles, overspeed/underspeed protection, autloland, and a lot of power, in fact, under some conditions, a bettter thrust-to-weight ratio than the Gulfstream 550, according to B&CA magazine.

 

[Dieterly]

and a bettter thrust-to-weight ratio than the Gulfstream 550

WOW!!!

 

[T-Gates]

in fact, under some conditions, a bettter thrust-to-weight ratio than the Gulfstream 550, according to B&CA magazine.

I agree, that is Impressive!