sm203900
Well-Known Member
Speaking of out-thinking pilots, whose airplane is it anyway? You sign, you decide how much fuel goes in the tanks and how much freight, self-loading or otherwise, goes in the back. If they want button-mashers, let em find some (I'm sure this board is populated with plenty of 300 hour wonders who would be happy to do my job just as the DO dictates. Most of them would probably even survive). As long as we're still "pilots", why don't we stand together and tell the bean counters that their power ends on the ground, whatever we think of the motivations of particular guys in particular circumstances. Maybe now it's them, but soon enough it will be the rest of us.
You are 50% correct on who signs the release in the 121 world, there is still the dispatcher. That being said, a captain calls and wants extra fuel, it is not a problem if it makes sense.
What I mean, going into LAX and sky clear and the Capt wants extra fuel because ATC will lower the altitude 200 miles out is understandable, but going to Omaha and sky clear all the way from start to finish should not require extra fuel. The dispatcher on the otherend usually realizes that there are plenty of good reasons to bring extra fuel, but their are a lot of bs reasons as well. There are pilots out there that will say "I will only land with 4000 lbs of fuel" when the company reserve is 3000 lbs or an hour and fifteen minutes, burning more fuel for no real reason.
Just one person's opinion