Most won't disagree that trying to baby the engines to overhaul might help save some engines...I just wont do it on take off...
Increasing ground roll, decreasing stop distances, decreasing reaction times to a crisis in furthurance of saving a buck on overhaul 5 years later seems counter intuitive...especialy with 200 people in the back....
I wonder how many lives could have been saved had ther pilots hit V1 5000 feet earlier, and had more time to accelerate, they were faster when they tried to horse it off, or more runway to stop on.
But hey, a thousand flights a day using flex can't be wrong..and someone thinks it must save some money...but not all airlines use it, they chose safety first, probably more from a liability standpoint rather then a love of safety...
I hear Flex is used primarily to keep the 3000 pilots flying the fleet from overtemping, over torquing, ect the engines..really about keeping pilots from breaking the engines and less about trying to save on overhaul costs...
Operators could have thier pilots fly around at 5% less on cruise to probably get the same intangible results on overhaul costs...
None the less...
When you have one pilot flying the plane, vs 1000, it's probably a good idea to put in place some margin on operating limitations...always a throttle jockey in there that will add 5% over max rated on take off by accident, then it might be a tear down inspection...flex could eliminate type of error...now if guys are using FADEC ect...this is moot...
Even so..John T brought up a good point where the argument at Quantas was how far should flex go..the crews bitching for some kind of margin...rather then being forced to make every take off a 'fly it to the fence' type of thing...
Anyone in here that flies planes that other people fly will probably hope that the last ten guys were easy on the plane..In corporate, typicaly, your the only one that flies the plane...so that type of error is very much reduced...
I know corporate pilots that have threatened to quit because the idea of a partnership and having a bunch of newbies fly the creampuff without them not being there, was to them unsafe...to many variables..not to mention increased operating costs, like brakes, ect from having a bunch of pilots run though the plane vs one..
Well, I hope the next time I fly on airlines, I can push a button on my seat that says says 'vote yes or no for flex take off today"