Communicating with aircraft on the ground

[LimaGolfWhiskyboy]

Where there is no access to headset, to get the flight decks attention, I was under the impression it is acceptable to bang on the side of the fuselage under the cockpit window with an open hand one to three times; is this still the case? or are there any new rules forbidding this?

[speedbird_481_papa]

at my airport we try waving first to grab the flight deck's attention then failing that we do bang on the side to grab attention about three times to say that the GPU is good to disconnect for example.

As far as I am aware there are no rules forbidding this but I think that this falls down to the individual Ground Handling Agent and then ultimately the airline to say if this is ok, or not according to the relevant SOPs.

Two of the airlines that we handle both operate ATR72 type a/c. One of them forbids banging on the side of the a/c to get the captain to open the access flap in the flight deck. The other, doesn't say anything about if its ok or not, so we do!

[mad_jock]

If you are female you can flash your bra that always works. One fat ground handler used to flash his belly and slap it. But I suspect that was only for certain crew.

Banging on the side works for me. And its the way we attract the other pilots attention if we so wish.

But never actually seen anything written about it.

Write an email to the airlines flight safety officer and I am sure they will be happy to tell you.

[racasanman]

A few years back one of the ramp guys couldn't get the attention of a 757 shuttle flight deck so he threw his glove up at the window but unfortunately it landed on the pitot and stayed there until the engineer retrieved it.

[aergid]

Even without a headset fitted the 'Cockpit Call' button always seems to work its better than banging as I have seen to many coffes landing on FDC's lap due to this ;)

madjock Write an email to the airlines flight safety officer and I am sure they will be happy to tell you. yeah I could just imagine the response lol...

The other classic is the torchlight flicking the cockpit windows at night to knacker up the FDC's night vision, it goes down a treat I can tell you...:ugh:

[airbus_driver319]

Approved easyJet SOP is to bang on the side of the FD if normal communications are not available and refueling with pax on-board.

[mad_jock]

yeah I could just imagine the response lol...

Well I would expect them to send you a sensible reply.

If they didn't in my outfit and I found out I would boot his arse, and he would be auditing flight logs for a couple of days.

[750XL]

We usually give the side a couple of taps and have never had anything said.

My personal favourite was one of the loaders throwing his hi-viz jacket up to the window to gain the flight decks attention...

It got caught on the pitot head :}:}:}:}:}:}:}

[Tu.114]

Why not just come in for a talk? It seems that many loaders/fuellers etc. are a bit hesitant to just come up the stairs into the cockpit. They will certainly not be bitten away, and even less so if they have an issue that they perceive to need the crews attention!

So while the doors are still open, just come on in and speak Your mind eye to eye with the crew. While they are not, go grab a headset and do not rely on pantomimes to get Your point across. The spoken word has much less potential for misunderstandings than most alternative means.