Modesty forbids my reply:ok:

Then there are the excellent pilots who, on occasion, use hard braking making them seem like cowboy pilots. They are called flexible pilots as they can adapt to different situations when necessary.

It's not always black and white ya know.

My employer has a minimum auto brake 2 requirement because of carbon brakes. I reiterate that is a minimum. It is usually higher. This can often lead to perceived harsh braking by the pax. Does that make me a cowboy pilot because I'm following SOP?

No, but I do think a Mx company wouldn't think twice about throwing in a few extra sets of brake pads to keep a good customer like Mr O'Leary happy.

I'm not even sure they would push the issue at contract re-negotiation time. How many times have Ryanair just upped sticks and pulled out of a destination because the local authorities wouldn't give them lots of free stuff (including landing fees)?

A few dollars worth of brake pads vs a multi-million dollar contract? :ugh:

I dont have any firm numbers, but harsh braking is likely to be cheaper than going of the end, only a gues on my part of course!

If you do the sums, fewer taxi miles and fuel burn are cheaper than excess brake wear. On the 737, F40 AB3 is ballpark 1600m to stop, whereas F30 AB2 is 2200m.

My bunch look to select flap and auto brake to vacate at a convenient exit. Sometimes this is 2/30, and others it might be 3/40. If the latter, we also brief that if we look like we are going to miss the exit we won't stand on the brakes but disarm the autobrake and head fkr the next one as expeditiously as possible. Surely it's just good airmanship to do so? FR get bashed because of the "no frills" reputation but selecting a higher autobrake setting in this fashion is hardly slamming the brakes on.

It's thread responses like these that remind me just how stupid humanity an be, with the sad caveat that some of them fly planes...

A raise of hands - Who here thinks slamming on your brakes at every stop light 'saves' break wear?

Who here has actually supervised, managed brake r/r and seen the the landing per brake life stats on the plane you fly.

Teldorserious

you can't be serious :)

Perhaps you didn't understand what was being explained.

I wasn't thinking RA pilots were cowboys, it was merely a question regarding the cost comparison of a 2 mile taxi v brake pads.


which would make the 1700m (est) exit entirely feasible.


as it's the home base maybe Air Malta pilots like to come in gently in case the management are watching:suspect:

Some pilots get paid per duty hour, a longer slower taxi might increase their salary!