I'm not completely wrong, given that I don't actually believe APU burn on a turn entirely equates to taxi burn to a CDF... though I phrased it that way.
I'm just saying, if they want to take a chunk out of the new burn, be more disciplined with their APU on turns.
We know exactly how much the APU burns on a 600, 700, 800, 7M8, averaged over an hour, with one pack, 2 packs, and OAT. Also the amount WS requests for taxi duration of given length averaged over hundreds of thousands of flight plans. I guess I know nothing.
The "seldom" concerns in December was WS in talks with YYC to get the early departures at IFP off the gates earlier and spray somewhere else so they could get their tows going quickly. Reasonably significant if they cared that much.
Overall, the burn is obviously far greater with a CDF and it's not even close. Don't get me wrong. I don't know if you fly for WS, but the notion that your airline tries to get the APU shut down ASAP is bull####, in Calgary anyway. Everybody else... yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barnes
What does Westjet do differently at the gate? Don’t most companies run the APU at the gate or do they get power and air from the gate and start the APU and then fire up the engines?
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With power plugged in and pre-conditioned air flowing, WestJet pilots will still often start the APU upon arrival at the aircraft because the PCA isn't good enough for them. Last year they stopped doing it for a bit in an effort to save money as per their company, but I guess they don't care anymore.
Like clockwork on a WS turn at T-40 you can see the FO leaning out the window trying to find a guy on the ground crew to get the PCA turned off cause they want to run the APU and packs instead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stealth22
WestJet (according to Acey, I don't have first hand knowledge myself) just runs the APU for the entire process.
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The problem is that on a lot of their gates on A wing there is no pre-conditioned air. In their infinite wisdom, WS has ZERO cooling carts on the airport, only heat. So come any day warmer than 10°, it's APU for the duration of turn on all those gates.
Air Canada has combination heat/cool carts, like a civilized airline, to remedy this problem.
As aforementioned, the other issue is that even at gates with PCA and GPU, the crews don't like it.