When to Write it up, or, It Always Breaks on the Last Leg

[Cardinal]

In the case of a hub 'n spoke airline, there is a strong temptation to write up squawks when returning to the hub, where an adequate line maintenance presence is available. It's at best a hassle when you write stuf up in BFE, Wyoming, hours away from contract maintenance. MEL'ing stuff is a bit of a pain, since they can just replace the affected part, light, or whatever back at the hub in about 30 seconds. To further "motivate" us, we don't get paid when the flight cancels, so if you write something up in BFE at the beginning of a long day of flying, this can be a several hundred dollar "mistake." That circumstance, of course, doesn't bother the company a bit. Our completion factor is stellar because of it, but I digress. Just in "a friend's" case, I can't think of a single out-station write-up in the last 4 months, but probably 30 write-ups while at the hub.

How do you all feel about stuff like this? What do you do about it? Has the FAA ever made noise around your operation about how strange it is that everything breaks on the leg back into the hub? Is there an unwritten industry/governmental understanding about stuff like this?

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

What if there is no hub, and no contract maintenance at any of the places you fly?

Cliff
YIP

 

[say again]

MUMS the word here!! I think we all know what the answer is!!!!

 

[minitour]

MUMS the word here!! I think we all know what the answer is!!!!

Yep! Call dispatch!

-mini

 

[MTpilot]

Grd

I'm just lucky, everything breaks on the last taxi of the day.

 

[avbug]

The answer is that it really depends, and it doesn't matter a whit if you're flying hub and spoke or charter or anything else for that matter. The unwritten code is that items break on the last leg of the day at the end of the leg, and the other half of that code is that the items get fixed.

What I've seen far too often is that items don't get fixed, and the code is therefore broken. Regardless of any such traditional "code," if one has an item that needs attention, it needs attention, period. I've grounded airplanes before, airplanes that others have been flying while knowing full well about the problems aboard. In one case, the aircraft had two inoperative fuel gauges. I grounded it, and cited about fifteen other items. The company was very upset, but the aircraft stayed down for two and a half months and ended up being a parts aircraft for others in the fleet, because there was so much wrong with it that they had a hard time returning it to service. I later learned that the airplane in question had been flown in that condition for nearly a year, as I got reports from other crews and crewmembers that recalled each condition severally, at intervals going back at least a year.

I realize that you don't want to look bad and be the guy that does what everybody else should have done...but be that guy anyway. It's the right thing to do, when it's warranted. If it's something you can live with and something that's safe, then sure...write it up when you get home and make sure it gets taken care of.

The answer is that operationally it's often your best judgement...but I'm betting that if you look in your operations manual it will tell you in black and white that the PIC is always the final authority, and that the PIC will not be pressured to act against his or her better judgement. Virtually all GOM's have this. You can quote regulation all day long, but the company can't much argue against it's own manual...locate in your GOM the clauses that back you up at a time like this, and be ready to use them in the event pressure is brought to bear.

You're not paid for your methods, but for your results, and for your professional judgement in achieving them.

 

[jergar999]

I thought that airplanes always break where the pilots car is parked.

 

[nosehair]

...locate in your GOM the clauses that back you up at a time like this, and be ready to use them in the event pressure is brought to bear.

You're not paid for your methods, but for your results, and for your professional judgement in achieving them.

Avbug is back!

 

[JediNein]

Planes break. If you're lucky, they do so on the way home and in a manner that allows you to get home.

If you're not lucky, you land in BFN with the Feds waiting for you, no maintenance available, no cars available, and having to beg the ramp check team to give you a ride into town.

If you are even less lucky, the landing is not at a place that was previously defined as an airport, it's fricking cold out, and you didn't have a flight plan of any sort. You get to hope you can walk out and that the book and movie deals will be lucrative.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

 

[Cardinal]

If you're not lucky, you land in BFN with the Feds waiting for you

That isn't really my concern. I could shutdown an airplane with 5 MELable items broken and the Feds probably wouldn't have a clue. If nothing is physically dangling from the airplane I'd feel pretty confident. I do wonder if the feds have ever harrassed anyone over gegraphically convenient writeups?

 

[TurboS7]

Every 121 scheduled carrier is required to have maint. at each airport of one type of another. If it breaks write it up, 70% of the items that usually are a problem are "MEL"able. The other 30% represent a safety hazard. Your job is to be safe and fly a safe airplane not be a hero.

 

[Kaman]

Whats the record for most MEL's...Seen 18 on a release once...Freaking circus

 

[FlyingSig]

I can tell you having spent the last year flying to garden spots like MMCE, MMTM, and MMPZ.... nothing ever ever ever breaks in Mexico.