Regional Jet 900 (CRJ900)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Physiological - Other
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Weather; Company Policy
We picked up the aircraft with the left pack MELed due to causing smoke in cabin and cockpit a few days earlier.  We had flown this plane two days prior and were not looking forward to the heat.  We were scheduled to keep the plane for three legs.  We were full leaving with a jumpseater in the cockpit. The temperature in the cockpit started about 37C and only cooled to 32C in flight.  We landed and had rampers hook up ground air.  We deplaned and started preparing for our round trip.  When we received the release I noticed that on the first page our destination airport was listed under TALT with no airport listed under DEST.  Also the numbers for PLD; PZFW; MZFW; and MLDW were all shifted to the left under the wrong headers.  Oddly the second page of the release (the seconded copy) had no errors.  I showed it to my First Officer and discussed trying to get another release; thinking it was just a glitch. He went to the gate to start the process.  A few minutes later the Gate Agent pulled up the release on her computer and I looked it over and everything looked as it should be. When it printed out it was the same as before with some lines skewed to the left out of their correct columns.  I called Dispatch again and they were going to email the release to Operations for a different print out.  While on the phone with Dispatch I asked if our destination had a ground AC cart.  He said that they did not.  I pointed out that we were single pack and the cooling off just the APU might not be enough.  In the FOM it states 1) Pre-flight Preparation NOTE during airplane operations when the flight compartment and cabin temperatures are above 30C (86F); the air-conditioning packs or the low pressure ground conditioned air supply must be operating in order to maintain EFD temperatures within a range that prevents a display shutdown. Consideration should be given to the ground conditioning air as the preferred source.  I questioned the choice of sending an aircraft with single pack to an outstation without a ground AC cart.  The Dispatcher put me on hold and when he came back informed me that there were no other planes to swap into and still get the plane out on time.  We had just started to board the airplane.  I asked how this slipped through the cracks.  It was the second slip in two days with the same Dispatcher. The night before was the 72 hour check expiring at midnight and departure after midnight.    We received a new release that was printed in Operations and was correct.  We departed with a full plane and the cockpit temp of 35C and the cabin temp of 28C.  The cabin temp cooled during flight to 27C and the cockpit never got below 30C. After landing we kept the APU running for the entire 1 hour 15 minute scheduled sit.  The outside air temp was 26C.  The cockpit temp at departure time was 35C. Because the sun started to set as we were departing the cockpit did start cooling down on the way.  I believe it made it to 27 before landing and shooting back up to over 30 after we blocked in.  The plane was then scheduled to go to AUS; single pack. Three legs in an aircraft with the cockpit temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees really takes its toll on the pilots.  The single pack problem; fix it.  Make sure all stations that the aircraft is going to have ground AC carts.  Single pack in the summer could be dangerous to passenger and crew.  Maybe spread the misery and limit two legs to crew having to fly a single pack aircraft in the summer.  The release problem; I do not know why but it could be a computer/printer problem.  I left a copy of the release with the gate agent with the errors highlighted to show to her Supervisor.  I hope someone can figure it out.
CRJ-900 Captain laments being assigned an aircraft with an inoperative pack to fly three legs. The cockpit temperature rarely goes below 90 degrees.