Lomapaseo

Don't forget that pilots play a significant roll as well. The last pilot using the plane has a duty to write in the log any faults that need be addressed and maintenance then has to read the log and sign them off. If the pilot is in a hurry to go off duty after landing the last flight of the day he may not take the time to write up seemingly minor stuff (it flew in that way so it must be good enough). Then the next pilot powers up a few switches and doesn't like what he sees so he calls maintenance to make it as good as new before he flies. It's not all in the front office but a character of dispatching aircraft for first flights of the day dometically

I also seen similar in turn arounds of TATL flights where the maintenance guys start mumbling over 6 flights at the gates with the cuss words that it flew in that way so it ought to able to go back out that way and the new pilot disagrees

Productivity

Sure - things develop as you go through the startup checklist - they may not have been apparent on the previous flight. Lots of stresses (particularly on turbo machinery) that are different at startup/shutdown than in level flight. You try to spin up a turbine and something starts reading wrong, you have to take the cautious approach. I work with industrial turbines and a turbine that has spun for years will have the most difficult time starting up again.

Maintenance issues happen - your logic of because if to flew in with no issues, it shouldn't have any more issues would imply that no issues would ever develop.

steve64

Yep. Particularly in today's "electronics" world, that's kinda how malfunctions happen. "It" worked perfectly yesterday when I was using it (all the way to the point when I turned it off), but doesn't even make an attempt to operate today. Airliners, your car, a light bulb or (as in my most recent personal example) your Blu-Ray player. My Blu Ray player (which I literally used last night) failed to play a disk tonight (I can hear it spinning, but never gets to displaying the menu). I tried ejecting/re-inserting the disk, turning it off/on, then the same disk I watched last night. No help. After 5 minutes I gave up hope on getting it to run. Does that pattern sound familiar ?
Have you SERIOUSLY never experienced a "now" failure yourself ??? Mechanical items sometimes tend to give some indications of impending failure, but electronics tend to just go "poof", with "power up" being a common fail point. Airliners today are "very electronic".

At least 20 years ago, when one of the many AA Ops positions I worked was taking calls (at DFW) on a frequency specifically used by pilots for reporting MX issues ....
The SOP for inbound crews to report issues was about 20-30 minutes out before landing. Maintenance had a clue what they were up against before the plane ever landed. The assertion above from another poster that inbound pilots ignore reporting issues because they want to "get going" quickly is just as off base as yours. Failing to report a known issue is an FAA violation.
On a slight tangent ... I worked this "mx reporting radio frequency" back when the 767 was being introduced at AA. Here was a plane that had computers monitoring major systems and would automatically report issues with those systems. I left AA years ago, but it doesn't take too much imagination for me to assume that the 787 takes this "self monitoring/reporting" to the nth degree. Kinda hard for the Captain to depart if a computer somewhere is reporting a fault. The fault might not be a "no go" item, but it would need to be addressed by maintenance before departing the gate.

I'll agree that AA Ops seem to continue their downward spiral and that mx issues appear to be a factor.
IMHO, the high level culprit is more likely to be a cut in preventative measures (without going below FAA standards). As such, the common "failed right now" issues are on the rise.

JDiver

The 787 is a decent aircraft, though of course there have been teething problems (especially with the lithium batteries and Rolls Royce Trent 1000 series engines, which is why BA has three parked at the LHR hardstands and leased in QR A330s), but for such a radically new aircraft it has been pretty good.

Nothing is trouble free, however, and it’s essy to back off on PM measures yetstill adhere to FARs and STCs. The beloved Mad Dog MD-80 is known to be trouble free all day and report errors - often incorrect - on a cold startup at the beginning of the day.

Of course, a carbon fiber aircraft being described as a “bucket of bolts” is quite a bucket of humor.

IADCAflyer

Probably enough though to make control surfaces "dirty" - requiring deicing.

dc10forlife

Ah, the continued love affair with the Mad Dog. Don't get me wrong, its a nice plane. But have been on one bird, and the past couple of times we have had problems. The solution -- a cold reboot. Power everything down while sitting on the tarmac. After 5 minutes boot it back up after "the circuits have cooled." The master caution didn't turn back on and we were good to go. Very reassuring.

james318

I've been on my fair share of 787's this month (5+) with another 6-8 coming in the next 30 days. I have not had one mechanical issue between the 788 and 789.

Antarius

considering Boeing has a massive massive market share and the 787 is literally flying off the shelves (pun intended), it's pretty clear that there is no reliability issue with Boeing relative to Airbus (or vice versa).

enviroian

My comment was more or less anecdotal. For all the high tech carbon and electronic wizardry the 787 is it's always gone mechanical (not to mention get canceled in SCL last year). All that high tech crap is good.....when it works. For all the low tech the MD-80 is it seems to be a far more reliable plane at the end of the day.

Moving forward I will not be flying that plane to O'hare and back ever again. AA's reliability with on time % of that plane must be horrible. If it's not then I guess I'm just plagued with bad luck.

AANYC1981

enpremiere

Jaimito Cartero

enviroian

Sure once they get in the air. The hard part is getting them to take off.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

OskiBear

Have a look at this thread: SQ 37 Last Night?

Singapore's inaugural LAX-SIN with the A350 returned to LAX two hours after take-off...