Originally Posted by
waren9
i've flown for 3 jet operators and not one of them has advocated for briefing for/or performing a reversal turn and landing downwind.
still, if everybody walks away you can call it a win i guess.
Every take offs I have done at my last 3 operators, we have briefed what we would do in case we need to do an emergency return. I always insert the departure airport longest runway in the secondary flight plan along with populating the secondary PERF APPR page for that runway. This was SOP at two of my last three airlines. the current one only has it as a "best practice". That way, whoever ends up flying the aircraft is only 2 or 3 key strokes from having the correct landing data in the FMGS and can now divide his/her attention at doing other things.
My current airline divides abnormals into "no time" and "time". A time problem could be an engine failure. There aren't too may problems that would be classified as "no time problem" but a smoke/fire event is certainly one of them. We are in the business of managing risks. Can we manage and plan for all risks? Of course no. But why would we not discuss the course of action that will be taken for the worst problem of all problems?
Almost anything else can be managed at a slower pace but not a fire.I think it's a good idea to be ready for it.