ExpressJet questions

[rumpletumbler]

These questions came from a section on ExpressJet from airline pilot central.

Are these trick questions or something?

The captain reports for the flight and smells like alcohol, what would you do?

If a pilot reports to work smelling like booze then he has no regard for the lives of his passengers, crewmembers, the company's future and or any horrible publicity that would come as a result of him being caught by someone other than the employer...TSA....passenger..etc. I would hand him over to the op's director or whoever could get it taken care of quietly as soon as humanly possible.

You see the captain drinking in the bar 9 hours before the flight, what would you do?

Why are you in the bar 9 hours before the flight to see the captain drinking in the bar? What's his condition? If he went in the bar 9 hours before the flight and had a beer and left who cares? If he's hammered and tries to go to work the next day then refer to question 1. I would bet that company ops spec prohibits drinking 9 hours before a flight. Not a good idea permitted or not.

During the walk around you notice a nav light is burned out. You tell the captain and he wants to continue the flight, what would you do?

Call MX to replace the bulb.

You notice the Captain is not wearing his shoulder harness as you're accelerating through 80kts during takeoff, what would you do?

Why are you looking at the captains seat belt accelerating through 80kts? Don't you have something better to look at passing through 80kts?

You are straight out of IOE, and during your first approach you find yourself high. The captain wants you to continue for the landing, what would you do?

If you can't land within the prescribed area defined by your ops spec then go around.

The captain doesn't want to run checklists and won't respond to your prompts to do so, what would you do?

Run mine and his.

These are just quick off the cuff responses. I must be missing something. Can someone tell me if there's some kind of trick here?

 

[ASA_Aviator]

FYI, you can be in the bar drinking up to the FAA limit. 8 hrs bottle to throttle.

Be smart about it, of course.

 

[Clutch]

During the walk around you notice a nav light is burned out. You tell the captain and he wants to continue the flight, what would you do?

Call MX to replace the bulb.

Congratulations. You saved millions of lives and can consider yourself a hero.

 

[rumpletumbler]

LOL. I take it that means the correct answer is you would do nothing. If its required then get one. What would it take to put a new bulb in, like 2 minutes? How simple is that?

Are you supposed to say its no problem and affirm to the company that they can count on you to break regulations?

Something so easy to fix and takes no time at all why make a big deal when the penalty for not doing it can be an issue?

I'm not saying anyone would lose sleep over a navigation light being out but seems covering the company's butt would be a good thing.

 

[ASApuppy]

Not so easy there. Truth be told if the letter of the law was followed perfectly for every flight, our on time rate would be under 10%.

Add to the above story that your in Albany, GA. It's 6pm on Sunday evening. Do you think a mechanic is going to show up at that hour and change a light bulb in 2 min. Not happening. They will be driving from Macon or Fort Walton Beach and will have you up and running in 3 or 4 hours. At which point all your pax will be rebooked and you will ferry the plane.

If the Captain shows up smelling of alcohol you pull him aside. You encourage him to call in sick and call the Union substance abuse team. If he refuses, only then do you go behind him and call yourself.

As for the nav light out. Many items on the plane are in the MEL as "Crew Deferable". That is the easy out. Going behind the Capt and calling MTC on your own will not win you any points with your Capt or the Company. If it is a true safety of flight issue, please speak up, but to your crew first.

 

[rumpletumbler]

Thanks for the reply.

I wasn't saying I would refuse to fly or something crazy I was just saying "if" I were doing a walk around and "if" a light was out and "if" it could be taken care of without delay or issue then why not? I wouldn't even involve the captain. Why would you run to the captain tell him something simple is wrong if you could fix it without his involvement.

As for the drinking question it reads "the captain reports for a flight" so I was "assuming" that the call in sick opportunity was already gone at that point and he was determined to get in the airplane. I would of course try to get them to call in sick or anything other than report if it were at the hotel, enroute or whatever. I was assuming reporting for the flight to mean the sick option was gone.

These are very difficult to answer as you're damned either way probably depending on who asks and so many variables in interpretation.

 

[Brasilia Pup]

You WILL fly every day you are on call. No extra days off, regardless of season. Scheduling is good at that. On RARE occasion, does a reserve end up with an extra day off.

Used to, it was common to "bust hump" in the summer, and recharge durring the downtime of the fall. However, this season, for example, the reserves have credited more time and been away from home more than the summer- and this is supposed to be our slowest time of the year.

I am on Reserve, and looking thru SkedPlus for the past three months...I've had 5 days, 5 days, and 2 days (so far this month) in which I've not been called on days I was on Reserve. YMMV.

Winter season (after Labor Day) things begin to slow down. Reserves DO often have days on-call in which they get to sit at home. On the flip side, during the Summer season, I've had Scheduling take away days off (contract allows down to 9 days off), and just get paid for the lost days.

 

[Clutch]

LOL. I take it that means the correct answer is you would do nothing. If its required then get one. What would it take to put a new bulb in, like 2 minutes? How simple is that?

Are you supposed to say its no problem and affirm to the company that they can count on you to break regulations?

Something so easy to fix and takes no time at all why make a big deal when the penalty for not doing it can be an issue?

I'm not saying anyone would lose sleep over a navigation light being out but seems covering the company's butt would be a good thing.

If the captain says not to worry about it and you call maintenance anyway, you're going to have problems. There are times when you are simply supposed to know your role.

 

[79%N1]

Thanks for the reply.

I wasn't saying I would refuse to fly or something crazy I was just saying "if" I were doing a walk around and "if" a light was out and "if" it could be taken care of without delay or issue then why not? I wouldn't even involve the captain. Why would you run to the captain tell him something simple is wrong if you could fix it without his involvement.

As for the drinking question it reads "the captain reports for a flight" so I was "assuming" that the call in sick opportunity was already gone at that point and he was determined to get in the airplane. I would of course try to get them to call in sick or anything other than report if it were at the hotel, enroute or whatever. I was assuming reporting for the flight to mean the sick option was gone.

These are very difficult to answer as you're damned either way probably depending on who asks and so many variables in interpretation.

Without the Captains involvement? Ummm. Okaaaay. He's not responsible or anything.

 

[rumpletumbler]

I didn't think it would usurping the captains authority to get a bulb replaced but the question did say he had said, no problem, so I get it. Thank you.

I did mean get it replaced before he was even aware if that were possible. Not like a challenge.