Operational Procedures
Operational Procedures is the flight-deck discipline paper: standard operating procedures, normal and emergency drills, performance and minima, the MEL, dangerous goods and the decision-making that goes with them.
Before flight
- Flight plan and slot, weather and NOTAM, fuel and mass and balance, take-off and landing performance, MEL or deferred defects, alternates and minima.
- Confirm take-off, approach and landing minima against crew qualification and aircraft equipment.
In flight
- The sterile flight deck applies during critical phases, typically taxi, take-off, approach and landing.
- Stabilised approach criteria must be met by a defined height; if not, go around.
- Memory items come first, then the checklist; declare an emergency with MAYDAY or PAN PAN as appropriate.
Specific drills
- Engine failure before V1: reject. After V1: continue, clean up, identify, deal with the failure and plan the return.
- Fire: discharge the bottle, shut down the affected system, land as soon as possible.
- Depressurisation: masks, crew communications, emergency descent.
- TCAS resolution advisory: disconnect the autopilot, follow the RA immediately, never reverse it, then report clear of conflict.
- EGPWS warning: maximum thrust, wings level, pull up, do not change configuration until clear.
- Windshear: apply TOGA, follow flight director or pitch attitude, maintain configuration until clear.
Worked example
V1 is 138 kt. At 125 kt an engine fire is annunciated, with 900 m of runway remaining and a demonstrated accelerate-stop distance of 700 m from that speed. The correct decision is to reject: close the throttles, apply maximum braking, spoilers and reverse. Had the failure occurred at 142 kt, after V1, the take-off would continue, because the performance calculation assumes continuing and stopping could overrun.
Traps
- Rejecting after V1 because the runway remaining looks long enough.
- Delaying the fire drill instead of landing as soon as possible.
- Treating the MEL as permission to dispatch with any defect, rather than only the listed items under stated conditions.