OK folks, I have tried and tried and tried to get this changed within the AA Flt Dept with no luck. So this is a general warning...
We have no standard procedure regarding exterior lighting on our MD80 fleet. On T/O we are only required to use our Nose Lights on Bright - wing landing lights are optional, but hardly ever used , and flood lights/wing illumination are not used during the day - and on landing there is no requirement to use any exterior lights whatsoever... Luckily most of our captains use "Cleared to land" as a reminder to turn on the Nose Lights to Bright, but a lot of them forget, and the result is a completely dark MD80 on final. Even at night. (We are discouraged from using our Wing Landing lights due to drag, fuel savings and vibrations.... I know, that is absurd.) Case in point, yesterday at LGA an AA MD80 landed on 22 completely dark, with about 4 aircraft holding short, waiting to cross.
So be vigilant out there, and don't be hesitant to call out "Lights!" on the frequency. (I always do.) I hope it doesn't take a collision to fix this problem, but Lord knows I have sent in tons of reports to our Flight dept regarding this issue. They just won't listen to me.
73
We have no standard procedure regarding exterior lighting on our MD80 fleet. On T/O we are only required to use our Nose Lights on Bright - wing landing lights are optional, but hardly ever used , and flood lights/wing illumination are not used during the day - and on landing there is no requirement to use any exterior lights whatsoever... Luckily most of our captains use "Cleared to land" as a reminder to turn on the Nose Lights to Bright, but a lot of them forget, and the result is a completely dark MD80 on final. Even at night. (We are discouraged from using our Wing Landing lights due to drag, fuel savings and vibrations.... I know, that is absurd.) Case in point, yesterday at LGA an AA MD80 landed on 22 completely dark, with about 4 aircraft holding short, waiting to cross.
So be vigilant out there, and don't be hesitant to call out "Lights!" on the frequency. (I always do.) I hope it doesn't take a collision to fix this problem, but Lord knows I have sent in tons of reports to our Flight dept regarding this issue. They just won't listen to me.
73