SOP's
Hello AirBusted320, post #883
It's been a while, this thread has fallen quiet now that everybody is on to the AF447.
On SOP's: they make it possible to step onboard an aircraft with someone you have never met before and fly away safely and efficiently!
The SOP of a company however, is not the ONLY thruth in aviation. The biggest hassle when moving from one company to another, while going to fly the exact same type of aircraft, is to learn the SOP's of the new company.
When sticking to SOP's religiously, like a real fundamentalist,how would you solve the following problem: my company SOP is to lower the gear on ILS glideslope, while passing 2.000 ft. German law (for noise abatement) requires me to keep the gear up until 1.300 ft. Either I violate SOP or break the law?
How about a pragmatic approach? When I cannot see the airport in a timely way, I have to be stable at 1.000 ft, so I will stay close to my SOP's.
When I can see the airport early enough, I can use the company SOP to be stable at 500 ft (in visual conditions), so I stay close to the German regulations and delay gear extension beyond my SOP rules.
Evaluating options is not a breach of company or Airbus SOP's: the SOP's require that the calculation that is used for the actual take-off is properly (double) checked.
As far as boards go, I do not stick to SOP's out of fear for any board. If I would make an error in the way that you describe in #883, then I have made an error, period. I try not to make errors and I use SOP's as an efficient way to trap errors, whether made by me or by my mate.
The error could just as well be blamed on the cup of coffee that I drank during cockpit preparations. The main thing is, after all the "fooling" around, concentrate on the important items when needed (not only in Melbourne, but also in Madrid, for instance).