Flight Deck Retractable Chart Table

[ableoneable]

I have heard this a couple of times.

A couple of months ago one of our crews had a PIT based fed on the jumpseat and after shutdown he asked the captain since when had the table been T.O/LDG approved. The captain told him he had been taught to use it that way by airbus when he first checked out on the bus eighteen years ago.

I thought it was just an urban legend but a friend of mine just had an east check airman on the jumpseat and he asked the same question.

What is the story?

 

[700UW]

The East had not had Airbus a/c for 18 years, they were gotten in 1998 or 1999.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I have heard this a couple of times.

A couple of months ago one of our crews had a PIT based fed on the jumpseat and after shutdown he asked the captain since when had the table been T.O/LDG approved. The captain told him he had been taught to use it that way by airbus when he first checked out on the bus eighteen years ago.

I thought it was just an urban legend but a friend of mine just had an east check airman on the jumpseat and he asked the same question.

What is the story?

The east policy has always been that the Airbus pilot's tray table had to be stowed for taxi, takeoff and landing. That doesn't necessarily mean that Airbus does not allow it, nor that the aircraft was certified either way.

But a check of the current US Airways Pilot Handbook for the aircraft should settle the matter. If the east policy survived the combination, then this pilot has some 'splainin' to do. Doesn't matter how Airbus trained him, if the company policy is more restrictive, it takes on the authority of regulation for operations under the certificate.

 

[Mtnman928]

I have heard this a couple of times.

A couple of months ago one of our crews had a PIT based fed on the jumpseat and after shutdown he asked the captain since when had the table been T.O/LDG approved. The captain told him he had been taught to use it that way by airbus when he first checked out on the bus eighteen years ago.

I thought it was just an urban legend but a friend of mine just had an east check airman on the jumpseat and he asked the same question.

What is the story?

It used to be verboten but now it is OK.

MM

 

[nycbusdriver]

It used to be verboten but now it is OK.

MM

When the east first got the Airbuses, the overly fussy (euphemistically speaking) staff came up with a few real "winners' in teh policy department. For a while we were supposed to avoid using the electric adjustments for the seats and only use the manual controls. (We were "saving" the electrical mechanism by doing this. They never said for whom we were saving it.) Then Airbus gently tapped them on the shoulder one day and said that the airplane was designed to adjust the seats electrically and the manual was for backup use only. Additionally, if the manual controls fail (by getting worn out,) the airplane is grounded and the seat has to be replaced. Needless to say, now everyone is required to adjust their seats electrically.

Another gem early on in the program was the encouragement for us not to use the rubber padded footrests. By using them we would wear them out, and they wanted to save them. (Again, they never told us for whom they were being saved.) I don't think this ever made it past the "recommended technique" stage, but that was the mentality of the Airbus training department at the time. I think the term anal retentive applies.

I also believe the tray table policy was derived from the same mentality.

 

[ableoneable]

Thanks for the info.

The east check airman could not find it in the FOM, though that does not mean much as there are a lot of things that are hard to find in there.

As for you 700 it was a west crew and the west has had the bus for a while. Some of our pilots came from Branniff, as did some of our aircraft, and we have pilots who have been flying them since they were certified.

 

[N924PS]

Thanks for the info.

The east check airman could not find it in the FOM, though that does not mean much as there are a lot of things that are hard to find in there.

As for you 700 it was a west crew and the west has had the bus for a while. Some of our pilots came from Branniff, as did some of our aircraft, and we have pilots who have been flying them since they were certified.

It was never in the FOM. It used to be in the old East Pilot Handbook but in the changeover to "best practices" was deleted permitting both East/West to utilize the tables at their pleasure.

 

[NiceLandingCaptain]

The East had not had Airbus a/c for 18 years, they were gotten in 1998 or 1999.

Well, did you consider that it could have been a West crew being questioned by the Fed? As one of the first Captains on the aircraft, I began my training in December, 1990.

We certainly used the pull-out tables then, and we still use them today. Why the East fleet Captain decided to ban them on TO/landing is anybody's guess.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Why the East fleet Captain decided to ban them on TO/landing is anybody's guess.

Because he could.

The first BS answer I got was that it was an egress issue. When I suggested that they then remove all the control columns from the Fokkers and Boeings for the same issue, they came up blank.

 

[sharktooth]

Well, did you consider that it could have been a West crew being questioned by the Fed? As one of the first Captains on the aircraft, I began my training in December, 1990.

We certainly used the pull-out tables then, and we still use them today. Why the East fleet Captain decided to ban them on TO/landing is anybody's guess.

What are you talking about?

The east thought it was a pathetically stupid procedure. A fed saw what he thought was an anomaly from "procedure" and questioned it. It has been changed! The system works! Ole!

What is your problem?

 

[NiceLandingCaptain]

What are you talking about?

The east thought it was a pathetically stupid procedure. A fed saw what he thought was an anomaly from "procedure" and questioned it. It has been changed! The system works! Ole!

What is your problem?

sharkface,

I have no problem, thanks for asking.

Perhaps if you read the first post in this thread, you would learn the genesis of my reply to xxxUW.

Is there some sort of darkside keyboard karma with this site that makes all you fusapians want to "start something" all the time?

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