Originally Posted by
neville_nobody
.............There is nothing stopping you from waiting right up to end, getting a thumbs up from the pilot, removing the pitot covers, walking up to the flight deck handing over the covers or showing them to the Captain, signing the paperwork and walking off the aircraft.
True in principle, but as Tom Sawyer is trying to tell you: if you have ever been a part of, say an A330 turnaround, the airbridge will have to be left on until the engineer has removed the PITOT covers, (from both sides of the aircraft), taken the mobile steps away, walked up the airbridge stairs, to doors 2 (usually), waited and got past the passengers stowing their cases and standing around in the aisle, waited and got past the purser who is exiting or entering the flight deck, and into the flight deck. Then he sits down and writes the release in the tech log, removes the tear-out pages and exits the aircraft past all the pax standing in the aisles etc.
Then, doors 2 is closed, and someone needs to be found to drive the airbridge away.
Then, the pilots wait for the headset guy to come on the interphone and give their checks and the pilots can call for push and start. That is a good 10 mins already since the covers were removed.
Push and start can take 5 mins or sometimes more to start both engines and complete the after start checks and call for taxi. Then you have maybe a 10 minute taxi...
Plenty of time for the mud wasps to do their thing after the covers were removed.
The PITOT covers ideally need to be removed after push and start, with the steering bypass pin (by having strings to pull them away by someone at ground level without needing steps), and shown to the pilots during the wave-off.