Update on Flight 718/June 16, 2011 (PHL‐FCO)

[Move2CLT]

Again Moron, read! The FAA, in a letter published by the company, said the APU shutdown, if not "auto shutdown". Really, can't you read?

And the company didn't cross examine her with the hard questions. Why?

They didn't cross her because her testimony was irrelevant and there was really no reason to make an ass out of her. They showed her mercy.

 

[Phoenix]

They didn't cross her because her testimony was irrelevant and there was really no reason to make an ass out of her. They showed her mercy.

Just like they showed mercy to the West pilots who were overpaid for their distance learning, and got to keep the money.

You guys are frothing at the mouth and don't even realize what the company has done by letting you be the pack of dogs.

 

[Phoenix]

Again Moron, read! The FAA, in a letter published by the company, said the APU shutdown, if not "auto shutdown". Really, can't you read?

And the company didn't cross examine her with the hard questions. Why?

They wanted to show mercy! Or they knew West pilots would do much better after being ignited with a few good rumors.

 

[luvn737s]

It's good to hear Capt. Wells is back at the PA-

Ladies and gentlemen, this Capt. Wells. I am the one that put your comfort and safety ahead of my personal vendetta against the company by cutting off the air conditioning and letting you sweat for a half hour or more.

You may ask yourselves, "Why the hell did you do that?" I am legally restricted from making any comments about that, but suffice to say that YOUR safety was my utmost concern. You see, if I decided to fly across the Atlantic and both engine driven generators went out and the hydraulic power to the standby generator failed and the ram air turbine failed and the APU failed to start and we were left to fly on battery power only we might not (but probably would) have our full 20 minutes of power to fly to the closest airport which would likely be over an hour away anyhow. Oh, and to those who might know something about Airbus systems and realize that the aircraft is only powered by batteries when it's on the ground less than 50 knots, to that I can only scream [CENSORED]

This airline wanted me to risk life and limb to fly an aircraft with a fully functioning APU disabled and put on MEL. Well I wouldn't! So I stuck another crew with that airplane and it flew 14 hours later without incident. Remember, a lanyard-wearing pilot is your last line of defense.

Thank you for your attention and we will be departing when maintenance is done with the aircraft and I'm finished with my phone call from the Chief Pilot.

 

[767one]

She is the only one I've read that said it auto shutdown. The maint folks said it didn't. And they easily started it, something that likely wouldn't have happened if the APU had a serious fault.

The transcript is her side of the story with hand selected questions designed to exonerate her with no cross examination. What's that worth?

MTC folks make mistakes too. I got on a 757 one morning in BOS and the ext pwr was off and the bat was on and dead. I called mtc told them I thought we should change the batterys and his reply was to reach up and start the apu and then look and me and say "the apu started so the batterys are good"After a discussion with a mtc supervisor who asked me "what's the problem capt? we have an airline to run!" I called the dispatcher and told him that the airplane will leave when it had 2 good aircraft batterys. They changed the batterys and we left.


Bob

 

[prechilill]

In this event, an A330 was on APU power getting ready for pushback from the gate. Very soon after push back started, the electrical power from the APU to the aircraft was disconnected reverting the aircraft to battery power only. (Note: published reports have stated the APU auto shutdown and could not be restarted by the crew. An examination of the Electronic Control Box (ECB) fault log file retrieved from the ECB by the repair vendor has confirmed that there was neither an auto shutdown of the APU or any failed attempts to restart the APU.)

When our two mechanics got to the flight deck, the flight crew reported to them that the APU had an auto shutdown and that the APU failed to restart. The mechanics performed a series of BITE checks via the MCDU maintenance pages and could not find any faults with the APU. They, then, proceeded to restart the APU and it started on the first attempt without hesitation.

iMore than a couple of hours after the first logbook page was filled out by the flight crew, the mechanics were given a new logbook write‐up for the same APU failure and unable to restart plus it contained a discrepancy for the batteries lasting only 3‐4 minutes and unable to communicate on VHF #1 after the aircraft lost battery power. The mechanics after consulting with MOC regarding the alleged battery failure were requested to perform two A330 AMM Tasks. One was a BITE Test of the BCL and the other was the Operational Test of the DC BAT BUS and DC ESS BUS Isolations. Both of hese tasks checked okay. The VHF #1 was also tested and it, too, checked okay. Maintenance cleared these reported discrepancies and closed out the log page without any deferrals except for the APU MEL from the previous log page.

When the replacement flight crew showed up in the flight deck, they started to perform an undocumented “aircraft battery drain test” and got the same results that the previous crew got at pushback – only 3‐5 minutes of battery power before the aircraft went dark. When this replacement flight crew was asked by maintenance personnel where this “test” was coming from, the mechanics were told by the flight crew that it did not come from any manual. However, they did say that they were told in flight training that the aircraft batteries needed to provide at least 30 minutes of power.

I am speechless at how dumb Wells is- and apparently a liar to boot. She says the APU did an auto shutdown but the computers say otherwise. She performs her own made-up battery test and instead of demonstrating weak batteries showed her complete lack of systems knowledge. Then another couple of east pilots show up to demonstrate their lack of systems knowledge!

Wells needs to be fired, she is a safety liability for us all.

 

[Move2CLT]

Just like they showed mercy to the West pilots who were overpaid for their distance learning, and got to keep the money.

You guys are frothing at the mouth and don't even realize what the company has done by letting you be the pack of dogs.

We can thank TP for fast tracking that one. Another one of USAPAs attempts to redirect contributions to Leonidas.

And pack of dogs? What is it we're doing to disrupt your slowdown? Stop blaming the west for your screw ups.

 

[Move2CLT]

They wanted to show mercy! Or they knew West pilots would do much better after being ignited with a few good rumors.

Non rumors needed. She messed up, period. The company could have hung her out to dry on cross but chose not to. She would have been humiliated.

She is the joke of MTC right now. Even some of your own pilots I've spoken to about her dont think highly of her.

 

[Move2CLT]

It's good to hear Capt. Wells is back at the PA-

Ladies and gentlemen, this Capt. Wells. I am the one that put your comfort and safety ahead of my personal vendetta against the company by cutting off the air conditioning and letting you sweat for a half hour or more.

You may ask yourselves, "Why the hell did you do that?" I am legally restricted from making any comments about that, but suffice to say that YOUR safety was my utmost concern. You see, if I decided to fly across the Atlantic and both engine driven generators went out and the hydraulic power to the standby generator failed and the ram air turbine failed and the APU failed to start and we were left to fly on battery power only we might not (but probably would) have our full 20 minutes of power to fly to the closest airport which would likely be over an hour away anyhow. Oh, and to those who might know something about Airbus systems and realize that the aircraft is only powered by batteries when it's on the ground less than 50 knots, to that I can only scream [CENSORED]


This airline wanted me to risk life and limb to fly an aircraft with a fully functioning APU disabled and put on MEL. Well I wouldn't! So I stuck another crew with that airplane and it flew 14 hours later without incident. Remember, a lanyard-wearing pilot is your last line of defense.

Thank you for your attention and we will be departing when maintenance is done with the aircraft and I'm finished with my phone call from the Chief Pilot.

Spot on!

 

[Phoenix]

I am speechless at how dumb Wells is- and apparently a liar to boot. She says the APU did an auto shutdown but the computers say otherwise. She performs her own made-up battery test and instead of demonstrating weak batteries showed her complete lack of systems knowledge. Then another couple of east pilots show up to demonstrate their lack of systems knowledge!

Wells needs to be fired, she is a safety liability for us all.

Its amazing what exuberant hysteria breeds in an otherwise rational human being.

 

[prechilill]

Its amazing what exuberant hysteria breeds in an otherwise rational human being.

Systems knowledge?

 

[Move2CLT]

Systems knowledge?

With an emphasis on the electrical system?

 

[Phoenix]

Systems knowledge?

You said you were speechless. Well which is it? The pitchfork in your hand, the chip on your shoulder, and the chant of the mob appear to help you to parrot things you have now knowledge of.

Did you bring your duck? A lot of people are counting on you!
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[prechilill]

You said you were speechless. Well which is it? The pitchfork in your hand, the chip on your shoulder, and the chant of the mob appear to help you to parrot things you have now knowledge of.

Did you bring your duck? A lot of people are counting on you!
.
.
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I see you are a movie man- I never saw that one, sorry. Who needs reading boring manuals? I look forward to being an east pilot!

 

[MUTATIS MUTANDIS]

I am speechless at how dumb Wells is- and apparently a liar to boot. She says the APU did an auto shutdown but the computers say otherwise. She performs her own made-up battery test and instead of demonstrating weak batteries showed her complete lack of systems knowledge. Then another couple of east pilots show up to demonstrate their lack of systems knowledge!

Wells needs to be fired, she is a safety liability for us all.

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-199827.html http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/S3-2006%20G-EUOB.pdf Okay this was a 320, give us that systems knowledge or should they just fire these guys too!