This weekend was pretty relaxed, with nothing much taking up my time. The weather was great, and it still is. Saturday evening was made brilliant with a nice lunar eclipse, and a nice ride to the airport to see planes land and pick up my dad.

Enjoy a nice read of the way in which I use my GPS on board: a nice way to both kill time and learn something: https://theflyingengineer.com/out-of-the-blue/gps-to-the-rescue/

I am somehow fascinated by Indigo’s culture: when the airline sees something worthwhile, they actually implement it. I heard from an Indigo pilot that they have regular safety information bulletins issued, which touch upon any and every topic that is of interest to flight safety. Some may laugh and most may not read it, but it is there to be read.

The issue of incorrect  FMS weight entries has been bothering me. A simple ZFW entry taking the place of TOW or GW can be the simple oversight that may lead to an incident, serious incident, or even an accident. How to safeguard against these errors is something that’s worth pondering on.

Fatigue is probably a contributory factor, and this fatigue needs to somehow be determined. Imagine, if the fatigue of a crew member’s can be gauged, the level of awareness, or oversight can appropriately be increased to prevent errors. Imagine a first officer knowing that his captain is stressed, or fatiugued: he can keep a closer eye on what the captain is doing. But then again: what is both crew members are stressed?

FMS weight entries: Weighing the consequences of simple errors!

Have a nice weekend, everybody!