NWA A320 pilots

[SWAdude]

I actually purchased tickets to fly to a birthday party and have a question about your operating procedures.

We pushed back from the gate in SMF and during the second engine start the APU shutdown. The captain on the intercom informed us that we are returning to the gate to have maintenance perform some paper work and we would be on our way. After hooking up ground power the airplane went dark and messed up some electrons on the electric jet so we had to completely power down and start up again. During this whole time the contract maintenance guy never left the cockpit so I assume(always dangerous) that it was indeed as the Captain said just to be paperwork.

Believe me I know sh#t happens but my question is couldn't you just have defered the APU and performed a x-bleed start and been on our way?

This whole fiasco caused a 1 1/2 hour delay and caused us to miss our connect in MSP so we had to spend the night.

Thanks for any additional info you can share.

SWAdude

 

[General Lee]

At least you got a free hotel room.......



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[FutureTEDpilot]

Hey dude! It's an Airbus, what do you expect?

 

[a320drivr]

I can tell you at jetBlue the APU is an enroute MEL that can be deferred by the crew.

 

[furloughed dude]

It sounds like they did what they were supposed to do. They called maintenance and completed the paperwork. They aren't supposed to just crossbleed start and write it up later. NWA doesn't do enroute MELs and can't fly with an open write up. I don't know why it took that long to MEL the item, maybe they were waiting on an external air cart to provide air for the start.

It isn't all that uncommon to reboot up the airbus.

Sounds to me like it was slow contract maintenance.....

 

[Habib]

When the BUS shuts down at the gate, what he hell is that sound that starts, sounds like barking dogs from below.

I would guess it is the Elec. Hyd. Pumps?

But really no clue.

Always makes the PAX laugh.

This has been on the NWA planes, only BUS I have been on.

 

[Slug]

It is Hydraulic pumps. I don't remember which ones in particular or what gets them barking. In the short time I was on Le'bus at UAL we had to calm about 10 different pax down at different times because they thought cargo was loose, dogs barking, ground crew trapped, etc.........................

Very funny actually,


Slug

 

[a320drivr]

Its the PTU. It kicks in when it senses a 500lb split between hydraulic systems. #1 engine powers the green system and #2 engine powers the yellow system so if one engine is shut off the PTU kicks in to power the other system unless the yellow electric pump is on which will cause the PTU not to engage to power the yellow system.

 

[SWAdude]

It sounds like they did what they were supposed to do. They called maintenance and completed the paperwork. They aren't supposed to just crossbleed start and write it up later. NWA doesn't do enroute MELs and can't fly with an open write up. I don't know why it took that long to MEL the item, maybe they were waiting on an external air cart to provide air for the start.

It isn't all that uncommon to reboot up the airbus.

Sounds to me like it was slow contract maintenance.....

I suspected that they might not have enroute write ups. Which (if true) is mind boggling. There were over a hundred pax that had to spend the night. Then they were put on flights the next day that were taking up additional potential revenue. Who knows how many thousands of dollars that cost the company.

Why on earth would any company not have the option to defer once pushed from the gate?

Contract maintenance was there in short order. This delay seemed unneccesary.

 

[Superbird]

Who knows how many thousands of dollars that cost the company.

Why on earth would any company not have the option to defer once pushed from the gate?

SWAdude,

Different POI/FSDO's approve different procedures. Kinda like how SWA crews don't do walk-arounds on quick turns, rather their 'trained' ground crews are on the look out for damage.

SB