JetBlue's paperless cockpit questions

[metrodriver]

I know jet Blue has a paperless cockpit. A few questions about that.
Do the laptops stay on board (and what do you use for home study)or do you have to carry it with you (and in that case is the laptop company provided or do you have to buy it yourself)?
Are the Jeppeson charts also on the laptop or do you still have to carry the old style binders with paper charts?
Is only the ops amnual on the laptop or also all the systems stuff?

 

[colorado418]

I know jet Blue has a paperless cockpit. A few questions about that.
Do the laptops stay on board (and what do you use for home study)or do you have to carry it with you (and in that case is the laptop company provided or do you have to buy it yourself)?
Are the Jeppeson charts also on the laptop or do you still have to carry the old style binders with paper charts?
Is only the ops amnual on the laptop or also all the systems stuff?

The laptops are provided to the pilots by the company. They are yours to use. The computer has all the manuals that the company uses. I have the station manual, fueling manual, MEL, Flight attendant manual, etc all on my computer. They are all stored as .pdf documents. When you check in for work, you plug into the network and all the .pdf files, the flight crew operating manual FCOM and our performance files are updated and uploaded. Our weight and balance is done with an OPS system. We plug in the numbers and it spits out the performance stuff to plug into the MCDU on the aircraft. That performance stuff is then archived so to speak on our computers till we update, then uploaded to the company servers.

All of our company memo type information is passed along via email. You don't get paper updates and phone calls going on. The management team is devoted to getting a response back to you within 24 hours of receiving your email. It works great. We also have access to crew trac at home and can do our scheduling work via email and crew trac.

Most guys take their computer home all the time and leave the rest of their flight case in the crew room. We have the hard drives partitioned into C: and D:. C: is your typical Win XP partition. That is our area to put on anything program, music, picture wise. The D: drive area is where all the company data information is stored.

As far as home study, we do have a program called VACBI. Visual and audio computer based instruction. That is on the computers when you get them and that is a large majority of the systems instruction in intial ground school.

Jepps are still carried by the pilots. We keep all the regular use airports and primary alternates in our cases. The high and low charts and all airports are carried on the aircraft and updated by a company person. I have all the charts that I carry in one 2 inch binder with a few regular use charts in a 1 inch binder.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

Is your recurrent ground home study or do you do it in a classroom?

 

[jointops]

Recurrent is 3 days of training in a classroom with an instructor. We then go down to MIA for the sim rides.

 

[JayDub]

In addition to what jointops says, you'll get an e-mail from the Head of the Miami training Dept. (whatever his official title is) giving you an outline of the events expect a week or two before your recurrent event happens. Included in this is a list of things they want you to read before you show up. You'll get a little bit of pay for it on your next pay stub. Something like 3.0 for "Home Study".


JayDub

 

[jointops]

JayDub,

Are you kidding me? Man, I better check that pay stub again. I was so excited about the upgrade, I didn't care as long as I passed the program.

Oh, wait. I just checked it and I didn't get that pay. It must be in lieu of upgrade training. Or maybe you got mine as well. Look I know where you work, mister. I know your layovers and I know how you fly. I'll tell everyone!

 

[JayDub]

jointops,

That's what I get for having a wife with a serious shopping addiction... attention to detail when it comes to the ol' pay stub!

I honestly don't remember if I got it for upgrade or not. I also long ago deleted my e-mail from him for recurrent. I'll see if I can find somebody that has recurrent here soon.

Other than that, I didn't pick "a bad day to quit smoking", I swear! It's really there!

JayDub

 

[metrodriver]

Colorado, thanks for the lenghty explanation, it answered excactly every question I had. The reason for it was a conversation I had with some people, all who are working for companies that are trying to go the electronic way. One put the laptops in the airplane, but didn't want the pilots to take them home, so what for selfstudy, especially if you don't have a computer? the other send updates via cdrom or e-mail and the pilot had to print them himself.
You guys started from scratch and it seems to me the way to go.
I have nothing to do with Jetblue yet, lack quite a lot in the 1000PIC hours in something decend. Once I have that solved, I would be very happy to come there

 

[colorado418]

Colorado, thanks for the lenghty explanation, it answered excactly every question I had.

Glad I could help. As you said, we started from scratch. I talked to our POI and he mentioned that normally when an airline is starting up, they come in with hand trucks loaded with manuals and papers for the FAA to peruse.

When jetBlue brought our "manuals and papers" in, he said they brought a folder. When he opened it up, there was a single CD-ROM in it with all our information. Pretty cool.

For another company to completely start over going electronic would be a monumental task. Not that it could not be done, but starting from scratch is much easier.

In regards to being happy to come to come here, you would be even happier once you got here. Make sure you put your stuff in when you get the mins!!

 

[JayDub]

Just got my check from last month. 2.7 hours worth 311.88 for "Ground School". If you didn't get this, you might want to investigate.

Respectfully,

JayDub

 

[Blue Dude]

I think the ground school pay is for self study in recurrent. I don't think it applies to upgrade, but I may be wrong. You're supposed to self study the applicable parts of the FOM, FCOM, etc. before class, so that's what the pay is for.

Regarding the paperless cockpit, don't forget the MEL and Airport Briefing Guide. Of all paperless operational documents, I reference those the most. The rest are nice-to-have, but I need those. I do occasionally refer to the FOM, FCOM, or Op Specs, too. The rest are good for an occasional study or reference question, but they just aren't needed on the line. I can take or leave them, but it doesn't cost anything to load them, so bring 'em on.

Word is that version 2.0 of our documentation system is in development by IT, and this may all change in a year or two. The new version will have extensive hyperlinks to other documents, be globally searchable, and will have better version control. This means that they'll be easier to use, easier to update and distribution may be targeted to the intended user. So sometime soon, we might not get every manual in the company, only what we need. The information itself would also be more accessible, by pulling references from among multiple sources at need. Cool stuff.

 

[jetblue320]

Electric Jepps

As stated in an earlier post, our Jepps are still paper but have been trimmed down to only our regular destinations, and a few prime alternates. The remainder of the "full set" resides on each individual aircraft as a library but are rarely used. We have a Jepp Boy that maintains them.

In the near future, we will have electronic Jepps (or other approved brand) that will be displayed from the stowable tray table that exists in the A320. It will be an active matrix type screen similar to a laptop computer. We have tried since our start-up to have electric charts and plates and have run into many bumps along the way. First, it was convincing the FAA, then when that was done, finding a vendor to support our project was a problem, then, it was finding a space in the airplane to mount a CRT because you can't use the existing CRT displays. They do not have a high enough resolution to display approach charts and enroute charts (believe it or not). Anyway, we are still working on it and the electric Jepp/Snack tray isn't far off. Maybe as early as this winter. Once again, way cool stuff and great tools of the trade if you ask me!

C yaaa