Originally Posted by
Airbubba
It is indeed on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/tl_wXfSwRzM
More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_845
The runway change scenario continues to be a high threat situation in my view. New speeds, new numbers, change it in the box, reselect a departure, reset the heading bugs, recheck the NOTAMS, update the ACARS etc. all while either taxiing or sitting still with an impatient controller and ten planes behind you if you've already left the ramp.
Multiple opportunities to make the chief pilot's hotline.
I am not and have never been tower rated, haven't done tower stuff since my initial training years ago, however if you get a spanner like this thrown into your works, advise the controller that you need time to run the numbers, and advise how long that will take to comfortably and thoroughly do.
If you say it's going to take you a couple of minutes to work out your numbers and you need to be fully stopped to do it, depending on airfield layout the controller might take you onto an adjacent taxiway and leave you alone or decide it's not worth the delay and leave you on the original departure.
The vast majority of us don't know company specific procedures (unless told when we get to meet you, which is very, very helpful), just like most of you do not and cannot be expected to know the various nuances of every airspace you fly through. At the end of the day you were promised X and now ATC are asking you for Y at the last minute. A last minute runway change is ATC discomoding you, it's your privilege to refuse. In almost all cases we are just trying to get you on your way faster, so normally it's worth looking at, for anything bar heavies near MTOW at least!