ASA DTW CP pulls IAD pilot offline for refusing aircraft

[aussieflyboy]

If you are so tired and can only think straight with an operable auto pilot, you shouldn't be flying. Period.

My god. I can't believe any responsible pilot would think otherwise. Good grief. What if ANYTHING went wrong on this flight?!?!

This HAS to be some sort of flaming trolling expedition...

What he/she said...

 

[Stifler's Mom]

I'm asking hypothetical questions to see what people think.

I think that if I am tired enough, and know my body well enough, that hand flying for two hours to HSV or BFE, may not be wise. By the time I arrive at my destination, I may not be alert enough, I should be able to refuse the ac for safety reasons.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Toss out the unable to think straight part from earlier.

 

[BoilerUP]

Hand-flying an entire flight is much more tiring than handflying the takeoff and landing and letting Otto do his thing for the other 80%. Given that so much of normal ops today are with the autopilot engaged, even the most alert airline pilot is going to have highly atrophied hand-flying skills across all segments of a flight.

Throw in a long day, late night, running behind, inclement weather, busy airspace, a body not used to that circadian rhythm, other factors not mentioned or a combination thereof and you've got a recipe for a lousy ride for the pax at best, ATC violation or incident at worst.

Mission-oriented machismo or not, a man's always gotta know his limitations...

 

[PBRstreetgang]

This has BH written all over it, he hates it when he thinks pilots are mutinying, like refusing a POS A/C. Hand flying a 200 for 2 hours at FL380 is fatiguing. If I was at the end of a long day, with many messes I wouldn't have gone either.

 

[asayankee]

This has BH written all over it, he hates it when he thinks pilots are mutinying, like refusing a POS A/C. Hand flying a 200 for 2 hours at FL380 is fatiguing. If I was at the end of a long day, with many messes I wouldn't have gone either.

Can't hand fly in RVSM....but I still get your point.

 

[SLUF4]

But if you're tired and relying on the autopilot you shouldn't be flying. What if the autopilot fails during the flight? That being said, this guy probably did the right thing.

 

[CheeseHead13]

The story went like this...

First captain refused the POS because no autopilot on a 2hr blocked leg to HSV (for a roundtrip). DTW chief pilot (C.H.) became heated and called the captain unprofessional for refusing the aircraft and pulled her offline. Then at 1:00am the next captain refused the POS (now besides the autopilot being deferred, the APU was deferred along with the fuel indications) because the flight was into LGA on the Korry 3 arrival with a pretty green FO. The flight was completed using the perfectly good airplane that was at the remote parking. Flight arrived in LGA around 2:30am.

Because of the DTW chief pilot's decision, it caused the flight to be severely delayed when all it took was to the 15 minute aircraft swap when that is actually what happened anyway after the captain was pulled offline. When it's all said and done, I think the DTW chief was the "unprofessional" one here.

 

[Medeco]

Yeah, cause the level of work load isnt increased with a deferred AP...

The pilot had better push back hard on this one and fight to be made whole regarding the suspension.

So many factors at play here.

BTW, the nose gear steering was deferrable too, are you being unprofessional when refusing to operate the aircraft then?

Who gets blamed when something goes wrong and the deferral was a contributing factor?

The CREW does.

 

[Clutch]

It's not C.H....It's K.H. and he sounds like a really neat guy.