Originally Posted by Nantonaku

Or is the hose just twisted? In which case are you still
violating vol 1?

Originally Posted by Herkflyr

That is because not only is it a stupid limitation (literally 99.9% of the time I see the APU running with the yellow hose hooked up--no issues as far as I know) but it is very unintuitive to follow, mainly because from the cockpit of a 321 (and a 330, the plane I'm now flying), you cannot see the yellow hose at all, thus you often don't know if it is even hooked up to begin with.

So, on a hot summer day, full flight, upon arrival at the gate, are you or anyone else going to have the APU running (as you should) but the bleeds NOT on, because the ramp crew might hook up the yellow hose with packs running? And then, "oh no, we've violated a Vol 1 limitation!"

Have you ever--ever?--had a ramp crew call the cockpit after gate arrival, saying "hey, we've got the yellow hose hooked up, can you confirm bleeds off so we can turn it on?"

The answer to both those questions is of course "no."

Until management makes it priority to educate both ground and flight crews, so as to coordinate these things, that Vol 1 rule/limitation is worthless. It is unfair to all concerned for Airbus and the fleet teams to say "here's a restriction" and then do absolutely NOTHING to facilitate the actual workers to abide by it.

Originally Posted by Nantonaku

Or is the hose just twisted? In which case are you still
violating vol 1?

Originally Posted by OOfff

i just look through the slits on the jetway when i arrive at the aircraft to see if we’re hooked up or not. works really well.

Originally Posted by Herkflyr

Arriving at the aircraft, agreed. I was more addressing when we arrive at the gate after landing. Precisely zero percent of pilots that I have ever flown with have the APU running, with bleeds off, just to avoid the "violation" if the ramp crew hooks up the external air and turns it on while the packs are running. Customer service, cool cabin and all that.

Now, if the cabin is cool with the packs, and I can (maybe) see that they have hooked up the yellow hose and turned it on, then I will indeed turn the bleeds off, wait a few seconds to see that that external air is working, and then turn off the APU. No one is running the APU to spite the company, but we do what is needed to keep the airplane comfortable for our customers.

Originally Posted by MJP27

Or just walk 10 feet to the jet bridge and look out the window.

Originally Posted by Avgeek7248

I just go outside, turn the PCA off, and knock on the nose to let the other guy/gal know it’s okay to turn the bleeds on. Not a big deal imo.

Originally Posted by slowyourroll

Did this for years until a recent DTW base newsletter (pretty sure that’s where I saw it) had a blurb about Rampers writing up pilots for touching the PCA controls. We find so many ways to complicate the simple things.

Originally Posted by Nantonaku

It was his technique, not mine. I look out the cockpit window and see if the hose is inflated.

Originally Posted by Wolf424

I’ve never seen that from any of the captains I’ve flown with

Point is, I haven’t flown with a single captain from any base on either of the fleets I’ve been on who’ve intentially not started the APU for air if the cabin is hot.