flying on us air from dayton to philly on monday, 1/23

[flaps]

not a great weather day.

we were in holding for quite some time and finaly diverted to wilkes berre, pa. reason for the divert was that the young captain had just been qualed in the left seat and as he explained , although he had 6000 hours in the a/c, the weather minimums for the first 100 as plane commander hours are higher.
i'm sure what he said was true but i never heard that before.
we finally did get into philly but my connection flight to islip, long island was cnx. hadda go into lga.

had departed dayton at 7:00 am and got home in eastern long island at 9:00 pm or about 2.0 hours longer than i could have driven the 700 road miles.

not complaining, just a shitty day.

 

[Brett327]

So he came over the intercom and told everyone all this info, or did you engage him upon landing?

Brett

 

[flaps]

he actually explained it verbally,not over the pa system while standing in the passenger cabin post shut down in pa.

 

[HAL Pilot]

It's true. They are called high-mins Captains. For the first 100 hours as a Captain in any specific type of aircraft the mins are raised by 100 ft and 1/2 mile visibility, not Cat IIs or Cat IIIs.

 

[jollygreen07]

I don't understand. These guys have a shitload of hours. Why the restriction? Liability? Or is it a FAR requirement? Kinda makes me wonder how the Navy lets guys like me take a heavy jet to mins with a tiny amount of TT (~800)....

 

[Fallonflyr]

I don't understand. These guys have a shitload of hours. Why the restriction? Liability? Or is it a FAR requirement? Kinda makes me wonder how the Navy lets guys like me take a heavy jet to mins with a tiny amount of TT (~800)....

You do not have a plane load of paying PAXs in back. That is a lot of liability and there are a ton of lawyers out there.

 

[jollygreen07]

Meh. I think I have plenty of liability, but that is a good reason.

 

[HAL Pilot]

Or is it a FAR requirement?

Yes

One reason I personally think this is a good idea is that when you go from right seat to left, you also are now building a whole new muscle memory and overcoming thousands of hours of the old one. As an FO I land with my right hand on the yoke, not my left. When I fly with a 3 man crew on a long range flight and spend part of cruise in the left seat, I always have to think twice when I reach for something as all the buttons and knobs seemed to have moved..... I think the 100 hours is a good thing before you have to fly an approach to 200 & 1/2 or a Cat II / III.

 

[scoolbubba]

Good thing we do everything backwards in P-3s. AC has the right seat for most landings, nose wheel steering is on the left. Never made any sense to me, but I just work here.

 

[KBayDog]

Yes

One reason I personally think this is a good idea is that when you go from right seat to left, you also are now building a whole new muscle memory and overcoming thousands of hours of the old one. As an FO I land with my right hand on the yoke, not my left. When I fly with a 3 man crew on a long range flight and spend part of cruise in the left seat, I always have to think twice when I reach for something as all the buttons and knobs seemed to have moved..... I think the 100 hours is a good thing before you have to fly an approach to 200 & 1/2 or a Cat II / III.

Sounds like solid risk-management, and I imagine that 100 hours doesn't take all that long to accrue (compared to 100 military hours, anyway).

Additionally, how often does something like what flaps experienced actually happen, HAL? I don't have knowledges of the airline industry, but I don't imagine that there are enough 200 & 1/2 or Cat II / III approaches flown within the first 100 hours of one's move to a new crew position to justify changing this practice.

 

[HAL Pilot]

Sounds like solid risk-management, and I imagine that 100 hours doesn't take all that long to accrue (compared to 100 military hours, anyway).

Probably about 3 or 4 months. These guys are junior Captains and sitting on reserve.

Additionally, how often does something like what flaps experienced actually happen, HAL? I don't have knowledges of the airline industry, but I don't imagine that there are enough 200 & 1/2 or Cat II / III approaches flown within the first 100 hours of one's move to a new crew position to justify changing this practice.

Doesn't happen a lot but it happened to us just the beginning of the month at LAX. There was morning ground fog for 4 days. Days 1 to 3 landed Cat III (I was day 3). Day 4 had a high mins Captain and had to divert to ONT. Normally our dispatch is more on the ball and if it the Wx forcasts makes us expect a 200 & 1/2 or Cat II / III day, they swap out any scheduled high mins Captain with one that's not.

I like the practice and think it is a good one. I don't think the occassional divert requires any changes. I've never heard of any push by the airlines for the FAA to change this either.

 

[sickboy]

.

had departed dayton at 7:00 am and got home in eastern long island at 9:00 pm or about 2.0 hours longer than i could have driven the 700 road miles.

not complaining, just a shitty day.

Should've loaded up on Yuengling.

 

[jollygreen07]

Yes

One reason I personally think this is a good idea is that when you go from right seat to left, you also are now building a whole new muscle memory and overcoming thousands of hours of the old one. As an FO I land with my right hand on the yoke, not my left. When I fly with a 3 man crew on a long range flight and spend part of cruise in the left seat, I always have to think twice when I reach for something as all the buttons and knobs seemed to have moved..... I think the 100 hours is a good thing before you have to fly an approach to 200 & 1/2 or a Cat II / III.

That makes alot of sense. Thanks.

 

[C420sailor]

...nose wheel steering is on the left.

Wait, what? Only the left seat has nose wheel steering?

 

[scoolbubba]

Yup. The tiller is on the left side; we don't use the rudder pedals to drive our NWS.