Aviation Industry Concerns

Is this the New World?

A couple days ago I received yet another letter with concerns regarding aviation safety. This came shortly after a Delta check airman voiced his concerns that Delta had changed their A330 manuals to an FCOM without adequate training. An FCOM is compilation of all manuals into one, where the information is difficult to access. I'm told all the company did was provide some online information, with plans to train everyone how to use it when they arrive to recurrent. The concern is, those who won't see recurrent for another 9 months will be using a product they have not been trained on.

I used the FCOM for the first time on the A350, and navigating the manual was more difficult than learning the systems. The explanation provide to me was we should select the tab per our knowledge level. If you know a great deal, select one tab for abbreviated information. If you average knowledge you could select a second tab that provided a little more information. If you had no clue, select the third tab to get a full explanation. But what if you don't know what you don't know? Gone are the good old days of looking up the systems in a systems manual. The reality is, this manual is a technicality now, more so than a useable product.

"Nobody knows where to go to find information"

Anonymous Pilot

  

Then another check airman wrote his concerns of the "One size fits all" door policy. Apparently the flight attendants wanted a universal policy for the door procedures. Inflight told flight operations to make it happen. Flight operations is doing just that, despite the A350 and a B737 being complete different configurations, and some (many) pilots are objecting.

Below is the letter I recently received. Should we be concerned with what's happening in this industry? I'm curious if this is ongoing at other airlines, too.

Dear Karlene,

Here are just a few things that have me highly concerned about going to work these days. These things are leading me to believe Delta is headed for a major accident. I’m not sure if this happening at other airlines but I feel the industry is headed in the wrong direction. I am not sure what to do. Any suggestions? Anything reported to Delta is all for the public and FAA show and is total hypocrisy.

Abysmal E-QRH roll out. Trained via QCQ last fall. Delayed because daddy D crashed the server putting their hands on it. Memory items change with little notice.

MCC in ATL is ignoring maintenance messages sent from the onboard aircraft reporting systems. Writing up a discrepancy under an improper MEL to keep the aircraft on time.

MCC giving out MELs before troubleshooting.

MCC have improper understanding of a malfunctioning aircraft system and therefore testing it improperly which leads to a cannot duplicate problem (eg. improperly checking a pressure regulating bleed valve with the APU…here’s a hint…you can’t properly check operation without running and engine.)

There is an incentive program for MCC in at least ATL that pays more for on-time departures. This has been verified with a former person from Tech Ops.

ATC:

Lying about weather and rides (eg. IAH lying about the ride through moderate and extreme precipitation calling it smooth then changing it to occasional moderate turbulence once you’re in it) it caused one of our aircraft to be hit by lightning.

 

Dispatch playing games with fuel and weather. (Eg. I have heard stories of them trying to bargaining fuel with the PIC on international flights…trying to give them 500LBS of fuel when they requested more.

STRESS

Failing to comply with paying people for overtime properly and then initially denying the claim. Verified from the Union.(It’s wage theft) And causes too much stress.

Crew tracking editing times to make people legal for duty…(eg. changing or not changing estimates in times for legal FAA rest).

Thanks for listening,

A concerned Delta Captain.

 

What do you think. Should we be concerned?