Delta Flap Flapping

Yikes.


And to avoid a new thread, this made the news.


simpleflying.com

Delta Air Lines Captain Rejects Boeing 757-200 Despite Maintenance Log Saying "No Issue Found"

A Delta pilot requests a replacement jet for the first time in 22 years.
simpleflying.com simpleflying.com


While no one has an issue with a CA refusing a plane for safety, perhaps LESS IS BETTER. What he essentially did is throw the Delta MX department under the bus in front of pax. Make passengers distrust airline maintenance. That MX signed off on it, but he doesn’t trust their fix, so he’s refusing the plane.


How about a simple, “folks, out of an abundance of caution, we are just switching to a new plane…”

And no one needs to know MX signed off on the original plane and that the CA refused the original plane. Just get them on the new plane and be on your way.


Delta charm school doesn’t cover common sense?
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Yikes.


And to avoid a new thread, this made the news.


simpleflying.com

Delta Air Lines Captain Rejects Boeing 757-200 Despite Maintenance Log Saying "No Issue Found"

A Delta pilot requests a replacement jet for the first time in 22 years.
simpleflying.com simpleflying.com


While no one has an issue with a CA refusing a plane for safety, perhaps LESS IS BETTER. What he essentially did is throw the Delta MX department under the bus in front of pax. Make passengers distrust airline maintenance. That MX signed off on it, but he doesn’t trust their fix, so he’s refusing the plane.


How about a simple, “folks, out of an abundance of caution, we are just switching to a new plane…”

And no one needs to know MX signed off on the original plane and that the CA refused the original plane. Just get them on the new plane and be on your way.


Delta charm school doesn’t cover common sense?
Click to expand...

Oof, that article is AI AF.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Yikes.


And to avoid a new thread, this made the news.


simpleflying.com

Delta Air Lines Captain Rejects Boeing 757-200 Despite Maintenance Log Saying "No Issue Found"

A Delta pilot requests a replacement jet for the first time in 22 years.
simpleflying.com simpleflying.com


While no one has an issue with a CA refusing a plane for safety, perhaps LESS IS BETTER. What he essentially did is throw the Delta MX department under the bus in front of pax. Make passengers distrust airline maintenance. That MX signed off on it, but he doesn’t trust their fix, so he’s refusing the plane.


How about a simple, “folks, out of an abundance of caution, we are just switching to a new plane…”

And no one needs to know MX signed off on the original plane and that the CA refused the original plane. Just get them on the new plane and be on your way.


Delta charm school doesn’t cover common sense?
Click to expand...

-You read that quite differently than I do,
-There was no fix
-It's the elevator
 
First of all nicely done to the 737 crew. I wonder how that must have felt like in the flight controls.

Now as far as the cringe PA, there seems to have been a trend ever since the company started encouraging oversharing and doing galley PAs. I think some personalities are trying really hard to be on next week's "look how good I am at boosting NPS" blurb on the weekly newsletter where they post passenger comments about pilot interactions. Unfortunately they end up sounding more like Captain Hollywood or Captain Servant Leader instead. After coordinating the refusal with dispatch, a simple "hey folks there's a mechanical issue with this airplane and unfortunately it's not an easy fix. We're coordinating to get a new plane instead. I'll see you all down at gate A6. Thank you for your understanding, safety is our #1 priority, and we'll get you going as soon as we can" is more than enough info for the average passenger.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Yikes.


And to avoid a new thread, this made the news.


simpleflying.com

Delta Air Lines Captain Rejects Boeing 757-200 Despite Maintenance Log Saying "No Issue Found"

A Delta pilot requests a replacement jet for the first time in 22 years.
simpleflying.com simpleflying.com


While no one has an issue with a CA refusing a plane for safety, perhaps LESS IS BETTER. What he essentially did is throw the Delta MX department under the bus in front of pax. Make passengers distrust airline maintenance. That MX signed off on it, but he doesn’t trust their fix, so he’s refusing the plane.


How about a simple, “folks, out of an abundance of caution, we are just switching to a new plane…”

And no one needs to know MX signed off on the original plane and that the CA refused the original plane. Just get them on the new plane and be on your way.


Delta charm school doesn’t cover common sense?
Click to expand...
Reminds me of a G200 I used to work on that had a control surface issue that would only show its ugly head at the end of a long flight at altitude, in other words it only acted up when the airplane was cold soaked and the control surface was a Krueger flap and because they were only used during takeoff or landing they obviously weren't exercised during the majority of the time the airplane was up at altitude cruising but one of the actuators would lock up and refuse to deploy when commanded and some sporty approaches had to be employed. Of course by the time I was able to get to the airplane I could run every possible operational test and everything worked perfectly, I could go look into the data but it was setup that if one actuator failed it didn't differentiate either left or right, it was just recorded as a Krueger flap fail. After multiple instances, much consternation on the phone with Gulfstream tech ops my best solution was to just replace both actuators, this is where some things can be taken away from the concerned, gentle hands of your favorite mechanic and the bean counters tighten the purse strings and ask why you can't replicate the fault but you want to spend $70000, trying to explain the systems to those folks will get you absolutely nowhere. I tried packing the actuators with dry ice one at a time to freeze them trying to get them to fail with zero success. In the meantime management kept sending the airplane out on charters and owner flights and the pilot who was a friend of mine was getting a bit disgruntled about flying this mid-size jet all over the world and wondering if he'd be able to lower the flaps when he landed in some far off destination. Eventually he and I squawked enough to management they allowed me to purchase one new actuator (it was common to both sides) so I could replace one and if that fixed it we were golden, if it didn't I'd just reinstall the original actuator and replace the opposite actuator with the "new" one. It wasn't a primary flight control but doing it right was a tedious process that required modelers clay and other "special" tools to insure it was rigged properly. And that still didn't work, it was the bane of my existence for a solid winter. Eventually we got it sorted and everything was fine. As I said I was friends with the pilot and he told me he explained the situation to the owner after one these sporty landings and the owner (a billionaire) asked why we were struggling, just buy the two new actuators and be done with it. And that was the issue, the management/charter company didn't want to pay for the parts. This caused a maelstrom of fecal matter regarding contracts, the owners intentions and desires and who was going to foot the bill. Not long after that one of the MLG side brace actuators started acting up after long flights and it was replaced without question immediately. I'm fairly certain the situation you posted about regarding Delta delaying a flight has more to do with management than the flight crew or the MX folks.
 
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Kingairer said:
"Captain Shane and FO Mike"...cringe. I hate when I hear FAs say that.
Click to expand...

Seemed to be a required thing at the regiOOnal when doing UAX flights. A few FAs would ask if we preferred our first, last, or full names as part of the PA. The more senior ones just skipped that part of the announcement. I did get a few to call us Captain Oveur and First Officer Murdock though which amused me.

It has (thankfully) only happened twice at SouthernJets. First time was a local “legend” who makes up her own rules on her weekly Anchorage runs and it being a red eye and me a still on probation as an FO indeferred to the CA who said first names only. Lucky for me I can only hold ANC in winter anymore so we don’t cross paths much anymore.

The second time was shortly after I came out at work and after a quick glance at my FO’s face said in no uncertain terms did we want our names broadcast on the plane. I have zero issues with a name tag and people seeing it, but after my FO’s stories about how after a flight where the FAs introduced the pilots she turned on her phone after landing to multiple creepy DMs and FB requests from passengers I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

Plus it either makes it sound like we’re mob drivers taking someone out to make a long visit to the bottom of the East River or that someone’s proud of their kid growing up and getting their first driver’s license.
 
This thread drifted faster than a Mustang trying to burn out of an intersection. Besides wondering what could cause damage like that I’m more surprised that mainline was flying MCO-AUS.
 
Karnage said:
but after my FO’s stories about how after a flight where the FAs introduced the pilots she turned on her phone after landing to multiple creepy DMs and FB requests from passengers I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
Click to expand...

Weird. I’ve heard this story before. Almost like the FA hired help story. Aviation folklore.

Not saying it hasn’t happened, but the amount of people paying attention to PAs in the first place, and then the names, actually remembering the name, and then trying to find “Delta pilot Sarah” on FB afterwards is infinitesimally small to care about.


I don’t stop FAs from using our first names in their intro speech. I’m not that paranoid - and I actually have a unique name.
 
Greater Orlando has 2.6MM people and the Austin metro area has 2.4MM. That's enough fill the 5x daily 737s going between 'em. 🤷‍♂️

It doesn't look like there is an NTSB docket for the July Raleigh occurrence, so not much public specific info.
 
phill1174 said:
This thread drifted faster than a Mustang trying to burn out of an intersection. Besides wondering what could cause damage like that I’m more surprised that mainline was flying MCO-AUS.
Click to expand...
Maybe it’s changed but when I flew out of MCO, there wasn’t really any regionals that flew into there. Besides Silver.

It was rare to see a RJ.
 
DropTank said:
Ok 737 drivers: Is this a bad maintenance problem or an overspeed retraction problem
Click to expand...

My guess is it’s just a MX issue. The 737 (the dumpster fire it is) is a mechanical vehicle that has parts that wear. Sometimes these parts break.

Crew did a good job getting a broke airplane on the ground like they’re trained to do.

Not sure if it’s just me, but I’m kind of getting annoyed with the media fascination of turning every little MX event into the MCAS issue. Some of it is self induced by Boeing, while some of it is just ChatGPT writing an article for clicks.
 
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