PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Airbus A320 crashed in Southern France
View Single Post
Old 26th Mar 2015, 20:54
  #1554 (permalink)  
AKAAB
 
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Florida
Posts: 93
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Rideforever - the altitude selection is with a knob, not a keypad. The entire altitude selection occurred over 3 seconds and the 13008 hit was most likely just an interim sample of data as he turned the knob to 100'.

Old Boeing Driver - the entry keypad sounds an alert in the cockpit for approximately 30 seconds before the door will unlock. This gives the cockpit crew time to assess who is trying to get into the cockpit and, if necessary, to activate the lock to prevent the door locks from releasing. The keypad does not take five minutes or more to activate. The length of the lockout is variable by airline. No, I won't divulge how long it locks the door on our planes.

The real crux of the situation is that we pilots are forced to avoid mental health treatment, even basic counseling, because it becomes a required reporting item on our next FAA physical exam. On top of that, most insurance doesn't adequately cover mental health care and our Loss of License insurance limits our coverage if it is for mental health reasons. The pilot with issues is forced to deal with them himself or risk losing his job. (Alcohol, anyone?) The entire system pretends pilots don't have mental struggles at some point in their lives, and those that admit to it are marked for the rest of their careers.

Among the ranks of every pilot group, there are wingnuts. We all know who they are, but there is no process to help these pilots find better attitudes or mental health skills so long as they stay off the FAA's radar. We avoid flying with them when we can. We shake our heads when their names come up again and again in conversation about odd ducks among us. In fact, there are two pilots I have vowed I would never fly with again, even if it meant quitting my job, because of their bad behavior and unstable personalities. (Both were expats flying in Berlin back in the early 1990's.)

The kneejerk reaction is coming, folks. Get ready to have every SLF make a dumb joke about locking the captain out of the cockpit or questioning if you feel okay today. The cry for cockpit video is already starting. The media is laughing at pilots on the air for arguing against them. For those of you who still like to do your PA greetings/comedy routines from the forward galley - please stop. You look and sound weird when you do, and you're jokes aren't that funny. That's the last impression we need to leave passengers with - goofy pilot who thinks it's open mic night at the Improv.
AKAAB is offline