As for the company "Aircraft Operating Manuals, Parts 1 and 2", the 'Flight Ops Manual" and the "Cockpit Operating Manual" (with limitations, abnormals and supplemental procedures), not to mention the FARs and published STARs/SIDS, enroute and approach charts/taxiway diagrams (10-9... pages), guess where the airline or FAA lawyers etc start digging, with much time on their hands (and no fuel gauges to watch), after a pilot makes a major unintentional mistake, in order to keep any and all liability away from the company's back? The FOM clearly states that we must enter any known discrepency into the aircraft or cabin logbook, and either repair the item or defer it, with much of this accomplished by a certified aircraft mechanic. If the company really wants us to do take a major maintenance delay for an intermittant red flag on a radar altimeter in good weather...(you get my drift?) in Lansing, Michigan or Bozeman, Montana on a Saturday night, while passengers are boarding with an already delayed departure...even the phrase inoperative can be open to interpretation, or our dispatch reliability could fall overnight by a serious percentage.
This is not a statement as to whether pilots should always fly according to the tightest legal interpretation of those manuals, or not, but if numerous procedures and guidelines are not exactly met, it can help us all to depart and arrive on schedule, so that we always help our employer, other than plunging through unsafe weather etc?
Last edited by Ignition Override; 14th Jun 2002 at 03:59.