Originally Posted by
MD83FO
We never start the Apu at that time anyway, so it’s always an sop breach
Mind you! in almost 8 years flying Airbus, at home base I never came to the plane with APU not running. We don't use GPU unless APU is U/S. Maintenance always starts APU before crews arrive to the plane. Crazy I know..
Originally Posted by
Lookleft
Less checklist items are better as there are too many disruptions for a long checklist to be worthwhile. The downside is that some pilots will still try and do them from memory and respond automatically instead of being an actual check of the system. I don't get why the gear pins and covers needs to be in the cockpit prep checklist for an NB. This one size fits all for NB and WB is always a compromise. On a NB if you are doing a 4-5sector day restating that the gear pins and covers are removed just makes it an automatic response. Overall though I give it two thumbs up.
I always make sure that the 3 pins are on board as part of my flow regardless if I'm PF or PM. We have one of our aircraft who took off with the nose gear pin still inserted and have to return back as they could not retract the nose gear.. Embarrassing but it happened. It always makes me smile when we do the checklist and when the FO reads:
Gears pins and covers and turns his head back to pretend to check.. On the newest A320 where the pins are located behind the captain, it's impossible to see the 3 pins are actually on board unless you stand up open the compartment and check inside.