Jetstar and taxi lights
 

So, head to head with a Jetstar A320 the other day, I turned our taxi and turnoff lights off out of courtesy but they didn’t. After I commented they said “ we’re not allowed to turn them off”

what?

Thats rubbish. Airmanship always comes first.

That would be the younger generation at work no doubt.

MCD

Ok Boomer.

I agree with MCD, s/he/they was probably just a singular f#ckw!t. In my experience the JQ pilots turn the taxi light off when pointing straight at someone else……..now QF on the other hand……..but let’s not go there.

Man, I love this place. Here we have a thread about a JQ aircraft that didnt turn off his Taxi light (let's not talk about how f@#kin precious you have to be to start a pprune thread about it), I guess that means there is evidence of that fact, but it takes 2 posts for some d#ckhead to decide if actually QF that's the problem. What a joke this place is.

Everything ok at home little buddy? Might be time for a lie down.

Back on topic, there is no SOP that prevents you from turning off the taxi lights as a courtesy to other aircraft. Every arrival those same lights are turned off during taxi before turning onto the bay so as to not blind the marshaller.

It’s a fair point though? Why do Qantas taxi around with the wing inspection lights on when nobody else does blinding everybody they taxi past?

Couldn't you guess that it's SOP?

C'mon guys dont be silly. They need the wing lights on so they can check the wings for ice before takeoff (including when its midday and the sun is out), because it is very hard to operate in the wild climate of Australia and only QF pilots can do it well.

Who knows?

Could have been a line check. Could have been a line check with a "notable" checker. Could have been a training flight and they wanted to keep it SOP as an example. Could have been a former employee of YOUR airline and wanted poke you in the eye!

The QF wing light thing IS a bit of an eye roll though. They are the only airline I'm seen anywhere in the world that does that does that reliably, everywhere!

All airlines have their own policies which the crew are required to follow. No point shooting the messenger.
If it somehow affects the safety of your flight, submit a report through your safety department.

I knew I shouldn’t have said it, but I couldn’t help myself……….:=

Not being precious dear boy, just wondering if they do indeed prohibit courtesy and common sense in their flight decks is all. Chill

You won’t find courtesy or common sense on here unfortunately. The fact that you’ve had to ask about taxi lights on an online forum is alarming. At what point do we stop at….?

The VA boys using too much too much thrust leaving the gates at SYD

Forget the head to head, what about all the Jetstar pilots who will turn on all the nose gear lights before commencing the turn from a power out bay. It does my head in that there is no thought or consideration for what they are doing. Then there are the dimwits who will turn off the APU when the temperature is going to be 30+.:ugh:

Perhaps the airlines were so used to flying through TIBA airspace (all lights on)

Wing light use is a recommendation by IFALPA, policy for QF.

https://www.ifalpa.org/publications/...ion-risk--1454

25 ish years ago, I was driving 146s in and out of Brisbane regularly. Every day we were having to power off behind QF aircraft as we kept catching them. I asked a QF buddy - I said "mate, we in the 146 have trouble outrunnin' a Caribou, why are we catching you guys all the time?" His answer - beacuse QF is expanding rapidly right now, lots of low-ish time F/Os now flying and a trend of stuffed up approaches has developed, so QF has limited F/O's to 230kts below 10K." Now before everyone screams bull****, or that I'm smokin some of Heizenberg's finest - that is just what he told me - whether it's true or not, well I'll trust my buddy.

So on one hand - praise to QF for its proactive approach to an issue - BUT - SOPs can't just be in isolation, how did that particular SOP (if real) effect other aircraft and ATC's traffic flow plan? Badly. Just like the wing inspec lights. Someone said earlier about high beam when taxying, file a safety report. Well about 7 years ago I DID file both internal and external reports about QF inspec lights as I was sick of being blinded in YSSY. Clearly those reports achieved sweet FA.

I'm a big believer in solid SOPs - you don't have to like 'em, you just have to follow 'em. That will keep you out of trouble. So QF with the inspec lights - well its SOP. Taxy lights blinding other pilots - let's use common sense and courtesy here and leave the taxy light blinding to China where a welder's mask is standard issue. (go taxy round Chinese airports if you're in a rush to need the Fred Hollows foundation)

Although I’m not aware of Jetstar SOP, this is often an SOP brought about as a signal to the ground grew that the aircraft is about to commence moving under its own power. ( a beacon doesn’t signal this) It’s usually for the safety of ground crew and to mitigates a risk if the dispatcher/ engineer is inadvertently left connected.