Annoyingly Tedious Weather Scenario
- Thread starter Alchemy
- Start date
Alchemy
Well-Known Member
Here's what happed:
I show up at 18:10, and my FO starts talking about how he thinks we should cancel, which is a legitimate concern and at least gets me on the phone with dispatch a little later.
The flight was scheduled to leave at 18:40
The agent comes down to ask about boading at 18:15
I say "hold off 5 minutes", call dispatch and discuss the TAF's and METARS's with them. This is when the possibility of adding fuel for another (megahub) alternate is discussed. We agree that it would be wise to add 1000 lbs so that we could make it there if needed.
At this point I'm willing to go.
Pax are and bags are loaded by 18:45. Dispatch send us a message through ACARS saying "wait until the next METARs come out at the top of the hour before you go, if it's still showing below mins they want to cancel the flight" (they presumably being dispatch supervisors).
I make a PA explaining the situation the pax.
The METAR comes out at the top of the hour and still says OVC 100 1/4 mile, VV100. As soon as I see that I call dispatch and they confirm that the flight is cancelled. They say it would've been a wast of fuel. I'm in no mood to argue, and even if it was, we subscribe to the "most conservative approach prevails" method of decision making.
As soon as our pax and bags are offloaded, another crew come running to the airplane; their equipment had a hydraulic leak and they were going to use our airplane for their flight. I wonder if this may have been the ulterior motive for dispatch to cancel oru flight. Unfortunately for them the plane had about 3000 lbs more fuel than they needed, which would take a hefty bite into their payload. I don't know what happened with that, because I left for my crasphad.
THE END.
PS: The METARS never improved throughout the night, so odds are we never would've been able to attempt the approach.
About 1 hour after we would've departed, the destination TAF was amended to reflect 1/4 mile 100 ovc vv100 for the rest of the night.
I show up at 18:10, and my FO starts talking about how he thinks we should cancel, which is a legitimate concern and at least gets me on the phone with dispatch a little later.
The flight was scheduled to leave at 18:40
The agent comes down to ask about boading at 18:15
I say "hold off 5 minutes", call dispatch and discuss the TAF's and METARS's with them. This is when the possibility of adding fuel for another (megahub) alternate is discussed. We agree that it would be wise to add 1000 lbs so that we could make it there if needed.
At this point I'm willing to go.
Pax are and bags are loaded by 18:45. Dispatch send us a message through ACARS saying "wait until the next METARs come out at the top of the hour before you go, if it's still showing below mins they want to cancel the flight" (they presumably being dispatch supervisors).
I make a PA explaining the situation the pax.
The METAR comes out at the top of the hour and still says OVC 100 1/4 mile, VV100. As soon as I see that I call dispatch and they confirm that the flight is cancelled. They say it would've been a wast of fuel. I'm in no mood to argue, and even if it was, we subscribe to the "most conservative approach prevails" method of decision making.
As soon as our pax and bags are offloaded, another crew come running to the airplane; their equipment had a hydraulic leak and they were going to use our airplane for their flight. I wonder if this may have been the ulterior motive for dispatch to cancel oru flight. Unfortunately for them the plane had about 3000 lbs more fuel than they needed, which would take a hefty bite into their payload. I don't know what happened with that, because I left for my crasphad.
THE END.
PS: The METARS never improved throughout the night, so odds are we never would've been able to attempt the approach.
About 1 hour after we would've departed, the destination TAF was amended to reflect 1/4 mile 100 ovc vv100 for the rest of the night.
ljg
Well-Known Member
Re: Duty Limit
Entirely. The Captain always has the final say in fuel required for a flight.
Entirely. The Captain always has the final say in fuel required for a flight.
