When does the FAA's required “safety” feature become the pilot's distraction?
Several interesting complications appear after re-reading the latest "web" update on the NWA Nordo event of 21Oct09, cited in Slot #618:
“… the f/a brings the meal up, [Capt] step back to use the restroom … returned, the F/A left the cockpit and he began to eat his crew meal…. f/o had received a frequency change … not the correct frequency … [Captain] always has 121.5 tuned … noisy at times … forget to turn it back on….. [merger] new bidding system … [captain’s] lap top out … on his left leg …2 minutes … f/o … laptop out maximum of 5 minutes….. f/a's called the cockpit on the interphone … no one was fighting … nav [ND] screens … set on the max 320[NM] setting … the f/o called … frequency … Winnipeg Center … saw Eau Claire and Duluth on [ND] … f/o told them over Eau Claire … not even close … MSP had disappeared from the screen ... though ... over the city … filed an NASAP Report … company tried to contact them on ACARS, but the 320 does not have a chime … about laptops … NWA's … operation manual … does not say we can't use a laptop … Delta's … does ….”]
Especially focusing on the element of
Pilot-out-of-Cockpit (red-flag), several competing FAR-obligations seem to DISTRACT the lone pilot-flying.
?When does the FAA's required “safety” feature become the pilot's distraction?
Cockpit
HOUSEKEEPING ambiguities during NWA's CRZ Nordo:
-- ND set to
320NM range??? (Maybe this should be a
"red-flag"?)
-- Second VHF-comm set to
121.5??? How far do we extrapolate this "guard" watch? With one Pilot-out-of-Cockpit? Even during low-altitude / high-workload terminal ops. (Should a pilot listen on TWO receivers during “sterile” low altitude ops???
When does the “safety” feature become the distraction?
-- Crz,
pilot-out-of-cockpit,
FAR 121.333,c,(3)-req’d high altitude
O2Mask-induced COMM-errs (lone pilot’s headset-removed while O2Mask is donned, but his Mic selector must be reset with the Mask-Boom toggle), freq-change, freq-check-in on other Mic? Audio Select Panel must again be reset back to “Boom” rather than “Mask”, when pilot removes the O2Mask after other pilot re-enters cockpit. Reset overhead Speaker?
When does the FAA's required “safety” feature become the pilot's distraction?
FAR 121.333,c,(3) =
“Notwithstanding paragraph (c)(2) of this section, if for any reason at any time it is necessary for one pilot to leave his station at the controls of the airplane when operating at flight altitudes above flight level 250, the remaining pilot at the controls shall put on and use his oxygen mask until the other pilot has returned to his duty station.”