Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
Trimeresurus wrote:How many hours and minutes before departure approximately?
Trimeresurus wrote:Do they use the same jetway as the passengers for boarding?
Trimeresurus wrote:In what state do they receive the aircraft?(ie completely powered off, "cold and dark", or electrified?)
Trimeresurus wrote:Does the flight crew and cabin crew board at the same time?
Trimeresurus wrote:If engines are too cool(aircraft not used for 24h or more), and need to idle for a while before takeoff thrust and the taxi time isn't long enough for that, do they do a preflight idle run up? Is it done at the gate?
Woodreau wrote:First flight of the day checks on turboprops can be done with pax on board or pax not on board... the airline preferred that pax not be on board for first flight checks.
So we'd start up, taxi off the gate, do the first flight checks then return to the gate for boarding.
The checks involved testing prop autofeather, and manually feathering, testing prop overspeed, aircraft overspeed warning. Alarms and things that tend to cause a little distress to passengers who aren't aviation enthusiasts.
After we taxied back to the gate and shut down - we were cold and dark for passenger boarding because the plane had no APU and the effort to plug in a GPU just wasn't worth it. - we just had the batteries on for the internal cabin lights, and boarding didn't take long so the aircraft battery didn't have a chance to run down very much.
The chief pilot one day forwarded a passenger complaint e-mail he received one day on one of my flights, the passenger complained that the flight attendant ignored the passengers the entire flight. The "flight attendant" boarded the passengers, briefed the passengers on the exit row doors and main cabin passenger door operation, then "disappeared" into the flight deck and "ignored" the passengers and didn't provide any inflight service. The "flight attendant" "hid on the flight deck" until the flight landed at the destination and opened the passenger door to deplane the passengers.
RetiredWeasel wrote:My info is a bit dated, but in the international widebody flights that I did in my last 10 years during the first decade of 2000, the cabin crew almost always boarded first. The cockpit crew usually were still in flight planning room doing stuff that was a little more extensive than domestic flying. And it takes a while to board 400 pax, so no rush (the pilots) to get in the cockpit.
RetiredWeasel wrote:My info is a bit dated, but in the international widebody flights that I did in my last 10 years during the first decade of 2000, the cabin crew almost always boarded first. The cockpit crew usually were still in flight planning room doing stuffthat was a little more extensive than domestic flying. And it takes a while to board 400 pax, so no rush (the pilots) to get in the cockpit.
Trimeresurus wrote:If engines are too cool(aircraft not used for 24h or more), and need to idle for a while before takeoff thrust and the taxi time isn't long enough for that, do they do a preflight idle run up? Is it done at the gate?
zeke wrote:A - Normally taxi time is enough, 5 minutes is normally all is required.
VSMUT wrote:That's really a piston engine thing. Turbines are good to go pretty much the moment they start up. It can't be done in less than 5 minutes anyway, because you need to complete the checklists, flows, set up the instruments etc. before you can take off, that takes a few minutes anyway.
Wacker1000 wrote:15 minutes is a typical time from engine OEMs. No one obeys it but it is meant to prevent EGT exceedances and the subsequent needless troubleshooting. Most of the time it only matters on a low margin engine.
Starlionblue wrote:I haven't timed myself to that degree but I suppose, if all the aforementioned stuff was done, it might be possible to set up the cockpit in under 10 minutes. The PF would do it, with the PM could "following along" a few steps behind. But the PM also needs to do the walkaround. We also have to go through the tech log, and brief. It adds up. There are a few shortcuts you can take, for example, if the arrival airport is a couple of hours away, you could skip programming and checking the arrival, leaving that for the cruise.
Woodreau wrote:You can get to an aircraft, get nested and pushed back to get on the clock. Then sit there on the ramp doing the rest of the preflight and once everything is done you can continue taxiing.
Ramp won’t like you very much as you’re blocking the alley while you’re doing your preflight on the ramp instead of the gate. But I had a month with a captain that wouldn’t show up until 5 minutes prior to departure, he’d show up get in the flight deck, sign the release hand it out the door, get the passenger door closed and push off the gate to get the on time departure. Then we’d sit there blocking the ramp for the next 10-15 minutes while he was doing his preflight. I’d already gotten my preflight done and did everything else to get the plane ready to go. Just needed him to show up.
BawliBooch wrote:Shortest times i have seen.
Only time I have seen this on a Western carrier: US Air at Kansas. But that was on a 18 seat Beechcraft.
e38 wrote:Quoting Woodreau (Reply # 25), “My fastest turn was 1 minute from block in to block out for the next flight. . .The FO got out, did his post flight/preflight walk around. . .”
Did the first officer actually even look at anything during the walk around?
e38
jetmatt777 wrote:e38 wrote:Quoting Woodreau (Reply # 25), “My fastest turn was 1 minute from block in to block out for the next flight. . .The FO got out, did his post flight/preflight walk around. . .”
Did the first officer actually even look at anything during the walk around?
e38
Even a 1-minute turn can be completed in nearly 2 minutes*. But, if they didn't hit anything on the way in. Airplane handled normally. No one came up to service the airplane. Then there really isn't a lot to look for.
*If you block in at 12:00:01 and block out at a 12:01:59 you accomplished a 1 minute turn in the actual span of almost 2 minutes, as the timestamps are rounded down to the nearest minute 12:00 and 12:01 in this scenario.
e38 wrote:Did the first officer actually even look at anything during the walk around?
Starlionblue wrote:The 1900 isn't too big either. And there aren't twenty-four brake wear indicators to examine.