ECON cruise, LR cruise...
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: MIRSI hold - give or take...
Age: 52
Posts: 568
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Most modern jets have a MEL thicker than my thigh - loads of redundancy built in, and most defects can indeed be transferred to the ADD records.
A few defects can't be deferred, and crew use safety evaluation to see if it's acceptable to fly with till we recover to base. E.g. "Fueling Door Open" triggers spuriously when we take gear down or landing flap - non-deferrable, so we both check fueling door closed before we close up, call MX and take it back to base and put pen to paper.
It's when we accept flying around with defects that can be deferred that the chain comes off - if we cannot be bovvered to ADD the item, we honestly can't blame mx or management. The majority of MEL items are Cat C or D, so it's not like we're springing a huge surprise on the company that they can't deal with in a timely fashion.
I know some jets live the lives of a tramp and rarely sees base - sometimes this is an economic necessity, but a "happy" by-product of this way of doing business is that the crews can be convinced to leave it out "just till we get home", full well knowing that this could be 2 months later. Sorry, but if you want to reap the benefits of tramping (ie no empties), part of the cost is roving engineering back-up.