For Empty Cruise and Downwind. You might be "pulling our legs".
If most of these are briefed (airborne) on each and every leg, then you folks are not in an older, two-person c0ckp1t, you have automation, and you only fly one, possibly two legs per day, and rarely deviate around thunderstorms, or at least not in airspace with dense traffic.
They are not very busy, multiple short legs in dense airspace. You would probably miss two radio calls during the in-flight brief, unless delivered like a machine gun. I can't imagine that either Fleet Captains or Fleet Training Captains would require most of this on each leg, unless there is a totally new situation and one (extra Captain of FO) crew member was sleeping somewhere. Possibly those gentleman who create such company procedures are out of touch with real flying, and need to avoid flying a desk for months on end.
Even if a pilot were brand-new on the airplane, it still looks like gross overkill. Which items are the MOST important, other than basic numbers for an instrument approach?
The US has at least ONE very specialized approach (requires special sim. training once per year on the 757), and that is into Eagle, Colorado (EGE)-never mind Juneau Alaska and certain other colorado and Montana airports- Salt Lake Center asked during my first descent (at night) towards Kalispell, MT, whether we would like to do the VOR to a circling approach!!. We thought the guy was nuts
...or possibly "pulling our chain"-we were in IMC until on final, with a "black hole effect". Luckily there was no unforecast snow on the runway or fog, which can easily happen (no alternate fuel to climb back over the mountains!
). I gave a simple plan for the procedure turn at Kalispell, stating that 180 knots is a simple 3 miles per minute. There are many detailed, explicit written procedures at Eagle which must be read to the other pilot. No other normal approach could possibly require a very long detailed speech. EGE has various groups of procedures, done block by block.
I was on a B-727 jumpseat of a very well-known cargo airline about nine years ago and the Captain must have been (+ just a bit impressed with himself
) quite new in his seat. He gave a takeoff briefing which included not only the wind and altimeter setting, but numerous other dry facts and figures. The strange thing was that the weather/winds were fair, with no MELs to affect takeoff/abort/landing. I was not sure what was different about the upcoming takeoff (neither weather nor terrain/towers on departure path or downwind, as in MDT, BHM etc), or what really mattered to the guy, other than a successful abort if needed, or a return to a runway with suitable length and winds, having an operative, good instrument approach as back-up.