SOPs at most carriers include a stipulation that not all situations can be covered, just as checklists cannot address every conceivable problem; and that crews are not constraint from using common sense. Deviations, in fact, are allowed for good cause, but they must be briefed by the captain.
Of course.
The SOP specifies that "max thrust" must be used whenever a tailwind is present. But what would be the point of that if, for example, you were empty, departing on a 13,000 feet pavement with a 5kts tail wind? Would you burn up the engines just because the SOP says so?
No. I would reduce the thrust for several reasons. I said 99% of the time, that falls in the 1% in my mind.
If during short final approach at 300 feet AGL in daylight VMC you had a GPWS warning, would you go around just because the SOP says so?
If it was "Too low gear, or too low flap" then yes. But I do know what you're trying to say. That falls into two areas I mentioned,"the SOP's need to be re-written" and also the 1%. Three of the carriers I have worked for state in the SOP's that in daylight VMC the flightpath can be corrected without the terrain avoidance maneuvre. This is a good comon sense SOP. So rather than you being aware that common sense is called for, while you're new F/O "says captain we must go around"...you have a good SOP that everyone can follow.
If the SOP says the recommended taxi speed is 15kts and you are backtracking on a 13,000 feet runway, would you deliberately slow airport operations because of your SOP's recommended maximum 15kts taxi speed? For the sake of operational expediency, would you not taxi faster than 15kts on that same runway where you had just touched down at 150kts?
Really??? This is getting silly...
I would taxi at a speed that was appropriate , probably about 25kts actually and guess what, I wouldn't be breaching the SOP you just mentioned. I'd be confident of that because I know what "recommended" means. If the SOP says "you must taxi at 15kts whenever possible" then it falls into the catagory of needing to be re-written.
How many pages upon pages of your SOP book would you have to "re-write" so that practical reality and good common sense could be followed "to the letter?"
None at one airline I've worked at, a few at another and many at my current airline.
Are we on the smae page now Glueball? I think we probably were to begin with anyway. Common sense is common sense and if you have to breach SOP's on a regular basis to apply common sense then your SOP's need a work-over.