A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human-Machine Interface; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance
Aircraft; Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
[The condition of the aircraft I received for a short turn around sequence is a good example of the low maintenance standards acceptable to our airline.] The aircraft had 12 MEL's including no auto throttle and no flight director. You [the reader] should all read the MEL's; our release; the routing and then just sit there and role play the scene [that would predictably follow]. I didn't bother calling my Flight Managers as I have tried that before and found [name] to be an out of touch 'pilot pusher' who will attempt to question your skills as opposed to addressing your legitimate concerns and [second name] who blasted a pilot for having gone to the FAA when he was concerned about the current state of operations. Instead of me describing the flight; I really think that role playing the event will be more enlightening. It would be great if you would just show up at the jet and--right then--get the release; the weather; the clearance; an MEL and pretend like it is you guys on the Flight Deck with the same situation. Brief everything like you are doing the flight.My intention is not to do harm to our airline by bringing our low standards to light. In fact; just the opposite our airline is like a practicing alcoholic in complete denial. When you read [Manager's name] letter about [our situation; he basically says] 'we just have some issues with our seats;' you realize that they are not grasping what is really going on here. Going to the FAA and providing this information in safety reports is actually helping the 'alcoholic' ([our airline]) to admit; get help; and get better even though in their current mental state they completely miss this point.Here are some suggestions. Please fix the auto throttle on this jet as it has been a chronic problem for about one year. I don't think that was the intention of the MEL. Flight Management's phone conversations with pilots should be tape recorded. Fix our airplanes in a timely manner. Back the pilots to help raise the bar not berate them (ala [previously mentioned managers]) so as to lower the bar. I would be OK with going before [our safety evaluation committee] if you feel that this would help fix the problem.
An A-319 Captain expressed his concern regarding his airline's failure to adequately address long term maintenance issues; pilot pushing and pilot intimidation.