limey1K

Thanks for the explanation. So its a carrier requested ground stop due to an inability to keep up with Ops based on weather not a comprehensive airport closure?

WineCountryUA

Other local UA issues, not necessarily just weather although that is likely the most common, can cause this.
But the basic point, UA is saying it needs to halt new departures to that airport until the situation is addressed.

limey1K

Yep, I get it now. I was trying to understand if it was a United ground stop or an airport-wide ground stop. Sounds like UA called it.

lincolnjkc

When you're writing up a "possible" log entry what criteria makes it worth writing up? Slightest chance it happened? Most likely happened but not certain? Somewhere in between?

Asking because... UA1698 ORD-CLE we boarded and then the captain announced that a previous crew had written up a "possible" wheel over speed leaving Denver and (to paraphrase) none of the options to resolve the write up had less than a several hour delay (downloading the QAR to see if it actually happened? 3-4 hours. Changing aircraft? Indefinite. Changing all 6 wheels [what were currently waiting on] at least 90 minutes)

LarryJ

The only way to know you had a wheel overspeed is by watching the ground speed display at liftoff. Due to the workload at that point, you aren't doing anything more than a quick glance at the GS indication. I'm not sure what led them to believe they had a possible overspeed. Either you see a GS above the limit or you don't. It sounds like they didn't see the GS over the limit but thought it might have gone over the limit. That would be a judgement call.

lincolnjkc

Thank you, as always, LarryJ.

One more since I've seen a number of last minute aircraft swaps over the past 2-3 weeks.

At UA is a "737 pilot a 737 pilot" as in any UA 737 pilot carries the ratings, etc. to fly any of the subfleets or do the ratings/qualifications depend on the individual pilot. For example if a 7M9 gets replaced by a 739, a 738 gets swapped to a 739, or a 73G turns into a 7M8 how likely is it that the original crew is flying it or does the type change mean scheduling is (possibly? probably? definitely?) recrewing it (I know the FA counts are also potentially different... but all of those require the same number of pilots )

paule123

I had to wonder how a wheel could be "overspeed", and found this excellent explanation:

http://www.lb.boeing.com/commercial/...icle_04_1.html

EmailKid

IIRC this came up with WN, as (again IIRC) in response to "can pilots be certified on 737 Classic and 737 NG (as they were) plus MAX.

FAA said you can choose two, so if a pilot is certified on Classic, no go with MAX, but OK with NG and MAX.

Educated guess is UA adheres to FAA certifications, so they can swap with no problem since UA has not had 737 Classic in ages.

Plus I seem to recall that LarryJ has posted about flying both types.

LarryJ

All UA 737 pilots can fly all UA 737s. Similarly, all UA Airbus pilots can fly the 319, 320, and 321. They did have to complete A321 differences training before those airplane came online but, I believe, it was a remote course.

There is only one 737 type rating. As EmailKid said, the FAA will allow airlines to maintain qualifications on two of the four generations as a common qualification. SWA retired its last Classic, a 737-500 IIRC, before adding its first MAX.

On the 756 fleet, the pilots are qualified on the 757-200, 757-300, 767-300, and 767-400. The FAA allows that but a separate currency is tracked for the 767-400 which has a different EFIS system (the same as the 737 NGs). Pilots who don't fly a 767-400 often enough can lose their 767-400 qualification and have to regain it through additional training. The 767-400 pays more so those trips tend to go very senior. That results in more junior 756 pilots losing that qualification regularly. I believe that one of the sim sessions at each recurrent training course, once every 9 months, is done in the 767-400 to reset that currency.

Then there are supervised entry airports where the Captain must first fly into, and out of, with a check airman then much return once every three years to maintain the qualification. You also have qualifications for different parts of the world such as the North Atlantic, Pacific, etc.

One qualification that we do not have to maintain is night currency. We need the landing currency but, for operations under part 121, we don't have to maintain a separate night currency as pilots flying privately do.

It's all a lot easier now that computers keep track of all the currencies for us. Much easier than the manual process we used to do.