HEAVY.AIRBORNE has provided just an average workload situation. There are too many tasks to accomplish, with many added due to computerization and electronic documentation.
2. "sterile cockpit on gound": There's the rub! 40 minutes to prepare the a/c for the flight w/ 10 minutes before the SLF arrives, incl. outside check, tec log, booting the EFB and setting it to mode 2 and connecting and calibrating it, finding out why the wind data just won't load in the FMC, catching the bugs in the data bases (EFB/OFP/FMC), finding the difference between routing MUCCCU6 in the FMC and the routing MUCCCU6 in the OFP (or: hey, why is BGTL planned as an ETOPS alternate on Saturday), searching for the waypoint xyz13 from your flight plan to find that it has been renamed to zyx31 (on the 31st NOTAMs page) so you can find it in the FMC, now ordering missing meals from catering, a lavatory needs to be cleaned again, the flight control center wants to know why you stopped boarding so you have to call back (or have to decide not to) and explain that boarding while fueling with only one airstair is illegal (glad you caught that), now try to order a 2nd airstair, but the number is occupied (again), while you are listening in on the de-ice freq to catch the righ moment for your request (or reckon the right moment to ask for your airway clearance etc. etc.) - I give up. Does anybody who knows airline ops really wonder why pilots might miss s.th.? Really?
To achieve an ONTIME departure there has to be a certain degree of short cuts. Accomplishing the above in 40 mins is impossible! Unfortunately added to this is a checklist which many crews just
pay lip service to, i.e. checked, checked, checked, but actually not Xchecking the parameters correctly.
The checklist read and challenge procedure needs to be modified to avoid this
lip service. For example the
replier should nominate or state a setting/number and the
reader should then also state the setting/number too and then say Xchecked for each checklist item.
This is the last line of defence!