Imagine the extra documentation to be approved by the FAA/CAA for procedural changes alone, not including a brand-new (to the airline) system, and the procedures on how the crew uses it and any interface with a "steam-gauge" HSI, or with the later machines which have triple laser ring IRS or IRUs! Then aircraft operating manual, flight ops manual, c0ckp1t oper. manual insertions, then the changes, revisions...never mind the extra equipment purchase and installation cost$.
How about installation and problems? A few months ago, we had 3 mechanics onboard, all "new" here, in order to replace a fluorescent light bulb in the fwd. lavatory (im wichtigen Klo) and a second, smaller bulb for the pink or blue light, just behind the c0ckpit door. True story. Young "Ellie", the first one who appeared, looked young enough to be in high school. Some of the folks have allegedly recently signed off logbooks without doing the work-this from a "safety" guy.
More of the future training will be done at home by "distance learning" (as some of it is now, including systems tests: install "JRE", followed by multiple clicks and away you go....a buddy recently was in his first A-330 (his first for ANY Airbus) training at the sim. building. Not just his first Airbus, but this is the larger ETOPS equipment. His Instructor gave him some papers and reportedly said "here is what you can do on the MCDU", and the Instructor disappeared for the whole training period!), in order to save the company money, which could easily be awarded to upper executives (United awarded FOUR HUNDRED of these "suits" with United stock. If true, why did they need 400 to "run" the place?), some of which have done a very bad job of navigating their corporations-but leadership skills are no longer required to instruct the unwashed, unlettered, uncouth peasants (labor).
Last edited by Ignition Override; 15th February 2006 at 07:15.