Probably a stupid question... wing inspection lights

[aa73]

Yeah, I'm bored...

Why do some airlines (UAL, DAL, CAL) turn on their wing inspection "ice" lights during the day when cleared for t/o.... does it really make a difference... it's hard to see. Just curious, is it in your ops manual or capt discretion?

We (AA) hardly ever use them during the day, and optional at night (I do, though.)

Thanks, back to my favorite reserve couch at the crash pad.

 

[Skank]

We do it because both the FAA and ICAO suggest turning on all available lights when on an active runway. Can you see them in the day? No. I guess it's just to keep the checklist and flows as simple as possible.

 

[aa73]

That makes sense, keeping the flows simple. AA mgt on the other hand tells us to "limit use of non essential lights to save bulb costs." However they do leave it up to capt's discretion.

 

[radarlove]

Do they also tell you that it is important to taxi at the speed of a crustacean, or is that also "capt's discretion"?

 

[aa73]

Do they also tell you that it is important to taxi at the speed of a crustacean, or is that also "capt's discretion"?

That, my friend, is the result of an absurdly long and complicated taxi/before t/o checklist we have. our CAs have to answer to every item on that list. they also have to make a "prepare for T/O" PA and chime the FAs when taking the runway. as a result, our CAs have to accomplish a lot of stuff that would normally be the F/Os duty, so that's why they taxi slow.

 

[radarlove]

Ahh.

I thought it was because they were paid by the minute. Oops.

 

[Jack Mehoff]

no way anyones checklist is longer then ours. we have 9 items for "below the line" on the before t/o!

 

[Pat Fabin]

Our taxi checklist on the 737-800 is two items. I think they could get it down to one....DAL/Boeing did a nice job keeping the taxi distractions to a minimum for us lowly gear slingers.

 

[COpilot]

At CO we have NO items on the B737, or B757/767 taxi check (there is no taxi ck). Everything is done on the Before start, and After start.

Really allows both persons attention to other things.

 

[canyonblue737]

same with SWA, there is no taxi checklist. you do a before taxi checklist and then taxi allows both pilots to do nothing but make sure they know where the heck they are going.

 

[PHX767]

I will attest that the AA checklist is really long and cumbersome. Take a long card with kind of small print, add that to a mechanical checklist down on the console that most items have 2 responses to , and now you know why it takes so long to get 'er done. Also maybe have to get new w&b from the acars, or new takeoff data if you guessed and got info for the wrong runway. And if you do a single engine taxi it gets real busy in the last few minutes.

On the lights: Most -80 guys will flip them all up/on to make it easy. Never flew with an AA Capt that wanted 'em otherwise. Then again I got laid off in Aug '03 so things may have changed....

 

[aa73]

CO and SWA pilots: What a great idea. The thinking at AA is, "Well, we did it that way on the Lockheed Electra so that's why we do it today, is there a problem?" Unfortunately, we still have a taxi checklist but it's pretty short - about 4 items. The rest is the "Before T/O" checklist.

So if you guys don't have a taxi checklist, do you have a "Before T/O" list?

p.s. Here's how absurd a mechanical checklist is: About two years ago we added "engine ignition" to the before t/o mechanical checklist. Guess how much it cost to install those two words to the MD80 mechanical checklist... $3000 per aircraft! and we have more than 300 MD80s. Do the math! Why they can't go to one plastic card per airplane is beyond me...

 

[geshields]

CO and SWA pilots: What a great idea. The thinking at AA is, "Well, we did it that way on the Lockheed Electra so that's why we do it today, is there a problem?" Unfortunately, we still have a taxi checklist but it's pretty short - about 4 items. The rest is the "Before T/O" checklist.

So if you guys don't have a taxi checklist, do you have a "Before T/O" list?

Yes we do have a before T/O checklist which is usually accomplished when we are number 2 for the runway...

 

[FR8mastr]

Back to the original topic, the ice lights do absolutely nothing but night blind the guys on the taxiways. You can not see the ice lights from behind so any potential "landing aircraft" wont see them anyway. In flight they can be seen, however when you see a bright white light in front of you, you think the aircraft is heading towards you ie landing lights. When in reality the aircraft is heading slightly left or right and away. If these ice lights were not on you could make out the nav lights and tell direction quickly.
Please give us a break and turn the ice lights off, especially on the ground.
I will give into the argument that ice lights are good for crossing active runways as an aircraft on final might actually see the ice lights in that situation.

 

[Pat Fabin]

Yeah, our 2 items on the 737 are flaps & flight controls. We could definitely move both of those to the afterstart or before takeoff. In any case, 2 is a heck of a lot better than any other airplane I've flown!

And for SWA, that makes sense to have both pilots looking out given your taxi speeds!