Is ETOPS-330 really a thing? Is that new? I had thought 180 and rarely 240 were the max!

The Airbus A350 has ETOPs 370 certification. Boeing's 777 and 787 aircraft are ETOPs 330 certified.

787 and 777 received ETOPS-330 in 2014 I believe. Becoming more of a thing as twin-engine aircraft are being applied to longer routes and in more places, replacing the 747s and 340s that were more common on these missions.

Not sure this is a pilot thing but �

DCA-EWR flight this afternoon (4413, dep 4p), delayed inbound means outbound delay.

however, the plane for the next DCA-EWR flight (dep 5:15p) has arrived already.

At least in theory this plane could be turned and reduce the delay of the 4pm flight, and the 5:15 flight could use the late inbound plane, and still depart on time.

all are CRJ-550s.

Any idea why they wouldn�t make this swap? Do the
pilots or crew need some amount of �rest� before turning (i
assume the same pilots just turn around)

I have some suppositions but curious about the "general" real answer. In this case though it is worth noting that all of the DCA-EWRs this afternoon are currently showing delays (4414 and later are "due to FAA staffing shortages") so UA or G7 (as the case may be) may have figured staying in the supermarket line they're already in re: aircraft/crew assignments and routings made more sense than shuffling everything to move to the line that looked shorter only to find an octogenarian with a checkbook and no pen was the next in line.

Yeah, thought maybe that’s what was going on. But I guess the next question is whether departure sequencing depends on the specific plane or just the flight number. If it’s the flight number then I would think they could swap frames and simply move the departure back up (but still late, just “less delayed”).

another possibility that ocurred to me is the inbound crew on the earlier flight might have been done for the day and the new crew for the 5:15 flight couldn’t start earlier to take the 4p flight, even with a ~30m delay.

I'm not sure if G7 swaps crews at DCA but it wouldn't surprise me given the proximity to IAD and the crew/MX base at RIC, but generally for any specific flight it is just one piece of a larger puzzle for both the crew and the frame -- it may be that that frame needs to be in a different place downline for a specific reason and swapping frames may upset that apple cart (e.g. 4413's (N576GJ) next stop after EWR is RIC (where it will overnight then fly IAD-YOW-ORD) -- perhaps it is due for maintenance and if you plopped 4414's current aircraft (N548GJ) on that line of flying you may not be able to legally get N576GJ to/from GSO for the flights that N458 is currently scheduled to fly (EWR-GSO-EWR-RIC-ORD) ... or maybe this is the N476 crew's "go home day" and moving things around would make it more difficult to get them back to Richmond.

Just a really weird example of how a small change can upset the apple cart: A couple years ago I was (supposed to be) flying MCO-CLE. Due to thunderstorms our inbound aircraft diverted to TPA (IIRC). This created a problem: When the aircraft left wherever it came from there was an inspection/maintenance check that needed to be completed within 2 cycles. As originally planned, you would have landed in MCO with one cycle remaining, flown to Cleveland, and the CLE MX team would have done whatever needed to be done overnight. However with that "bonus" landing in TPA it was now due in MCO right then -- no cycles left to get us to CLE. I can't remember if they were going to pull mechanics to do the inspection right then or found a different airframe to swap but a couple hours into the delay I moved myself to MCO-(IAD or EWR)-CLE leaving an hour after I made the change... And even with that delay and an added connection I still beat my original flight home by more than an hour.

The airline can swap their slots around from flight to flight however they want.

There are many factors which can prevent an equipment or crew swap to reduce a flight's delay. No way to know what it might have been in this situation. They do it often, however, so it was likely considered and rejected for a good reason.

I was once pulled off a flight just as the jetbridge was being pulled in order to operate a different flight that was delayed. The crew initially scheduled for that flight would have timed out due to the long delay but they were legal to fly my flight so we were swapped. They traded taking a delay on my original flight for not cancelling the other flight.

When this happens, how long does it take you to carry out all the pre-flight preparations for your new flight?

In that case, it didn't matter. Had to wait almost two hours for the airplane to arrive. It was that delay that preventing the original crew from flying that flight.

Otherwise, it can vary a bit, based on the specifics of the flight, but I can generally do everything within 40 minutes. A long-haul flight would take longer.

Flying the RNAV 29 approach into EWR - When do you guys disconnect the AP and hand fly it?
Is it different day/night? Cloudy vs clear?

That's up to the pilot. We are required to disconnect no later than 50' below the published minimums decent altitude (MDA) but the Stadium Visual Rwy 29 does not have published MDA so the 500' restriction applies without a published MDA or DA which would be approximately the western side of the railway bridge.

The 737 does a very good job of flying the RNAV visual approach so I tend to leave the A/P on longer. Allows me to devote more attention to looking outside and monitoring the flight patch and descent. I'll usually disengage just before, or just after, the final turn to final.

Sometimes the tower asks us to adjust our approach to maintain the separation and runway timing. For other than airspeed adjustments, that will have to be done manually.

Another RNAV approach that we often do is the RNAV X Rwy 31 - INDUSTRY at LGA. It has an MDA of 1260' which required us to disconnect by 1210', or approximately 1203' above touchdown. This means that the majority of the long left turn (from 089 track to 314 track), to line up with the runway, is hand flown.

Is that the successor to the Expressway Visual 31? When I used to fly jumpseat into LGA, we had a contest in the cockpit (727) on who had the "tanks" first. Sadly, no more tanks...

Those tanks were also a landmark for those of us on the grund.

Yes, it is. Where the tanks removed? That would make sense. Last time I flew it I couldn't find them.