The truth about "Cold and Dark"

[dfish 1]

Read this articale about how pilots find their cockpits setup before a flight.http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/feature/colddark.htmDave FisherCYYZP4 Prescott 3.2e 478p 800mhz 1mg CPUP4P800SE Asus Motherboard2.5 gig PC3200 DDR RAM 400MHZNvidia 7600GT/512Maxtor 80 Gig ATA 133 HD x2WDC WD800 80 Gig HDhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg

[razorseal 0]

nice! although I always knew capts don't usually (if ever) do cold&dark plane has power most of the time unless its being parked for overnight or something...

[Guest]

depends on what type of pilot we are talking about, most small time freight haulers start from true cold and dark

[razorseal 0]

yes, but it is not the captain's job...i'm no captain (well trying to make it there) but afaik it is not the capt's job

[Johan_Dees 84]

Right, but we are FE, FO, FA, and groundpersonell all in ONE!JohanA LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE

[Guest abent]

Great post!

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Excellent post. I myself have never really beleived in this "cold and dark" business in simming!!...specially when it comes to heavies!:)

[razorseal 0]

its always good to know how to start it up from c&d though :)

[Mike T 208]

Not sure what the purpose of the article is. We don't have a virtual FE or FO to start the aircraft up for us in MSFS, so if you do it yourself, what difference would it make? We generally do the duties of all pilots involved anyway. However, I can tell you that the first flight of the day almost always found us starting the aircraft up from cold and dark. Generally, ground power is connected overnight so you don't have to call ground but rather click the GRD PWR button to get things buzzing. However, This was epecially miserable in the winter at 4:30am prepping for a 5:15 push as the flight deck was as cold as the jetway, and the jetway was as cold as outside...epsecially if the main cabin door was open all night (hopefully the last gate agent closed it the night before)The APU is not whirring aways pushing warm bleed air into the cabin, but by the time the walk around is done, at least she's beginning to get warm.Now, for the rest of the day, you don't start from cold and dark since the aircraft is being turned and, for the most part, the APU is running and you simply need to set up the deck for your next flight.At the end of the day, if you are an international pilot you probably will NEVER get a cold cockpit becuase the heavy would have flown in just before you took it over while domestic and then internationally when you get the aircraft it just came in from overseas. So, if it happens to be YOUR first flight of the day, there is nothing wrong with cold and dark. It's more accurate than the article proports.

[Guest aarskringspier]

Ill take Captain Vallillo's word for it seeing as he also described how it was in his 727 days. He is speaking from the Captains position. Its how I have all my Cold and Darks set up with ground power already connected with IRS alligned.

[Guest Shalomar]

As a former inflight caterer at KABE; I often peeked in cockpits. Planes going out on their first hop were most often *not* cold and dark; often I would see full EFIS in all its glory before any crew members were on board. Ocassionally it would be truly cold and dark; I found it seems to entirely depend on the crew the night before. Often when the agent connected the jetway and opened the door they would have to turn on the cabin lights so we could work.Best Regards, Donny :-waveFLYing? It's cool. Trillions of birds and insects can't be wrong.