Sabena,are you a first officer?if so, i believe the day you will change seat,yoour perspective may change...
De facto, I've been spending the last six years in the left seat of the A320 and yes, my perspective has changed to what it is now.
Only time i refused an aircraft was a night flight in europe with anti ice valve dispatched in the closed position and obvious icing enroute.
I dont write the MEL nor the DDG.
Well, I've done it twice in those six years. And once even with a "MELable" defect. I don't feel good about taking an A320 with the nose wheel steering inop, even if the MEL allows me to! (Can't understand that's a MELable item with fare-paying pax.
). Didn't fancy explaining the pax that it was now ok to depart after first having returned to gate twice to try to get it fixed.
It may not seem so but Im quite fun to fly with and i often helped the CC cleaning the aircraft in short turn arounds to make the turn around slot,so you see im not the DEVIL white gloved captain you may think,i take account of my airline and my passengers confort /ontime performance,but my final goal is the flight safety.
Well, I'm the first to realise that discussing by posts on PPRuNe is not an ideal way to communicate. Having to miss the body-language and intonation in speech is a handicap! I don't think we're that different after all. Perhaps we would get along if we could have a beer together, but I don't get to China very often
. BTW, can we swap salaries, please
? And I wasn't thinking you were the devil. (Just one of his apprentices
. Hey, just kidding, really!)
...a COO who could actually think in 256 shades of grey as opposed to the usual #000000 and #FFFFFF
Wow, that's a nice quote and exactly the point I was trying to make. A situation is almost never completely black or completely white. For instance: would I consider departing like the Aeroflot A320 did with the same contamination and the same weather? The answer is NO WAY, unless... I was sitting in the A320 on the apron in Kabul and the airport was about to be conquered by an army of Afghan Al Qaida soldiers. I would sure consider it in that case! See? Never say never and (almost) nothing is completely black or white!