Saudi B777 take-off flap selection procedure
I was doing the walk around in Manchester yesterday when a Saudi B777 taxied out with the flaps still up.
Knowing that the Boeing procedure is to select the flaps before starting to taxi, I went back to the cockpit to enquire if the aircraft was taxing for departure. SMC said that it was so I mentioned the flaps. The response from the aircraft was that there was a new procedure at Saudi & "they now select flaps approaching the runway".
Does anyone know if this really is the procedure at Saudi now?!!! My understanding is that Boeing changed from selecting the flaps during taxi (except in certain icing conditions) to the current procedure of selecting flaps before commencing to taxi, due to the number of occurrences of crews forgetting to set them! If they really are doing this, it could be an accident waiting to happen.
Or perhaps it was just a face saving exercise when their error was pointed out to them!