cadetdrivr

This.

And even if there was a grain of truth to it, shouldn't a "chart light" be easily and quickly repaired???

Hypothetically, if an airline is incapable of such a minor fix I'm not terribly surprised that there would be issues with "reliability."

Lambourne

Saw this first hand a few years ago. Sitting in ops and the Captain at the table next to us was refusing a 767 for his map light. Flight was going to Europe. The maintenance guys were telling him it was the socket not the bulb, no parts and Deferral was only option. He wouldn't go and flight was canceled. They held our flight while they sent as many re-routed passengers on our flight as we could take.

Also, saw a B777 Captain refuse for a wing light in night VMC once. Heard him say he wanted to be able to see if there was a fuel leak. Don't think he had ever really seen what that light illuminates....

There are those pilots that thrive on drawing lines in the sand and boasting about it in operations. These are the guys that probably need two doses of LEaP....and an early retirement.

SpecialTracking

The best I ever heard was the headset rubber band on a 67 coming back from Accra. Yes, he demanded an operational rubber band. The flight operated but included a lot of drama.

AllenAllert

Probe claims to be a 20 year LUAL hire. In 20 years he should have learned more about United Airline history. Basic errors about things that are not necessarily in the history books but things that most 20 year employees know.

If you go back and look at some of his post it becomes obvious he's anti-ALPA (more like anti-union). Far too many inconsistencies in his writing to be mistakes or over sites. He's older than many 570 and may have been rejected during that hire period making him envious and jealous of the 570's standing/seniority. It's also possible he is a LCAL guy that was made whole with ALPA when LCAL rejoined ALPA, only to be scorned by the majority of LUAL pilots. He has issues and his continued writings on bogus claims demonstrate this.

At the least, he should correct his babble and at best, he should apologize to all pilots of United Airlines for his misrepresentation and attempt to discredit the United Pilots as a group. Maybe an explanation of how he EARNED IT is in order.

APC225

Gotta laugh at that one, considering how many aircraft are accepted with inoperative logo lights, at least I assume they're inoperative since to leave it off intentionally not only violates the FOM/FM, but unlike a pants-don't-have-cuffs standard, this is a clear FAR safety issue and likely requires collusion among pilots to leave it off, so it couldn't possibly be intentional. Very nearly ran into one these aircraft approaching spot 1 in IAH when the other aircraft's light blended too well into landscape lights in the distance.

Regularguy

My favorite delay was one morning in SUX.

It was still dark and as we taxied out we noticed there was another 737 sitting with both engines running waiting to take off. Because of the early hour and beautiful weather it couldn't be flow control, so I did what I normally do, asked a dumb question.

The flight crew replied, "We're waiting for official sunrise because we have a position light burned out."

"Oh," I answered and took off to our destination while they burned fuel on the ground. I couldn't help but wonder why the delay didn't happen at the gate with the engines shut down? It must of been those darn CS Agents who needed an "on-time" departure. Yeah that's it.

A pilot's creativity in response to stupidity (frustration) never stops amazing me.

Firsttimeflyer

seems to me it was illegal to even move that aircraft at night.

SpecialTracking

You are correct in that assertion. Follow the $$$.

Regularguy

Sometimes the little things are the most interesting.

Did you all know flying an airplane without the proper galley configuration during 121 (pax for hire) is "illegal." Not really a safety item but the weight and balance is based on the equipment on board and the correct galley carts are a part of that requirement.

The moral of the story is they can't send you out with carts and furnishings from a 777 in a 737 unless they have a MEL or certification numbers for it.

Strange but true.

Don't know about taxiing without position lights. Sounds legit that it may be required, but where does the official dispatch start? I believe brake release.

SpecialTracking

Point of dispatch is start of takeoff roll. You can't taxi sunset to sunrise without nav lights.