poorflyer

One of my favorite things about this job is during a mundane day taxiing around you hear witty arguments over the radio. It's so stupid but I love listening to it.

N914FJ

Who's excited for the perpetual SEA GDP until December? Hooray!

BobbyLeeSwagger

Haha, no but I'm talking about a 2 engine taxi where there is no SOP to time the clock. When we are doing a SE taxi, then yes, by all means. I do the same thing as you regarding the timing of passing 2 minutes. I have a card counting strategy.. 30 seconds for NB, 1 minute for WB:

Say you got 4 73s and 2 777s in line,

4 73s is worth 2 minutes, and the 777s are 2 minutes together. That's 4 minutes.. so you just wait till the line simmers down to 3 minutes worth of planes in any combination...because you need 1 minute to start and 2 minutes to warm up. So say the line simmers down to 2 777s and 2 73s, that's when you would start the 2nd engine. Actually works really nicely.

I know someone will roast me for going to great lengths for starting the 2nd engine so efficiently, but I promise you it's out of boredom.

FOs: if you forget the warm up clock like I always used to, the APU SHUTTING DOWN eicas takes 1:30 to clear from the screen after you shut it down. It's not 2 minutes but, its something...

Excargodog

Then there is the old story near and dear to the zero dark-thirty freight haulers.

It was 2:30 AM and there had not been a single transmission on the Salt Lake Center sector frequency for this sector in the middle of nowhere for almost 15 minutes. It was like there was almost nobody in the sky and the few that were were simply droning along on their assigned routes and altitudes without much need for communicating with center. Finally, breaking the silence, came a transmission, encapsulating what pretty much everyone airborne on the frequency was thinking:

"I'm effing bored."

The response was nearly immediate:

"Aircraft that made that last transmission, this is Salt Lake Center. Identify yourself."

And the response to that was also nearly immediate:

"I said I was effing bored, not effing stupid."

FlytheSky

Ah, yeah, I've never seen an FO time a two minute warm up on a two-engine taxi. Partly because I could count on one hand the number of times I've two-engine taxied as captain, and partly because it takes so long to run the before taxi check that 2 minutes is up before we even get moving!

Having met tower controllers, they'll tell you it's 1 minute per narrowbody and 2 minutes per widebody. I go off of that more often than not. But yeah, give yourself 3 minutes and you'll be golden (1 for engine start, 2 for the warm up).

I also perfected the technique of taking the north route in LAX and starting the second engine at the turn on E when there's no one in line and being perfectly warmed up as we line up with the centerline for 24L. Ah, those are the days...

PanchoBarnes

I thought I was the only one who figured that out! Works perfectly

poorflyer

There's sometimes though they'll throw you in front of everyone and take E8 to make a flow time.

FlytheSky

That's when you note your flow time and pull a MW at flow time - 8 minutes (1 minute engine start, 2 minute warm up, 5 minutes in case they release you early depending on your flow program). Then you're golden!

BobbyLeeSwagger

Is it like required to be warmed up prior to the takeoff clearance?....or.....can it be like before rotation...?

Slowhawk

Could it be.... no raised floors?