B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 105; Flight Crew Type 4478
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Manuals; Chart Or Publication; Company Policy
Flight crew APU Verification procedures should be in line with maintenance procedures.On the first leg of a PAC Qual the Flight plan listed MEL Item - APU CONTINUOUS OPERATION. We called Dispatch to verify that APU was to be shutdown and cold soaked then attempt restart. Dispatch confirmed that was the case. Since this would have to occur in ETOPS airspace I was not convinced we could do that while honoring the APU run requirement. At the aircraft the logbook did have a placard for APU verification. We both tried to look up the MEL but we could not find it. We asked the mechanic who performed the ETOPS check and he wasn't sure. I then looked up APU start verification in the FOM Maintenance chapter which seemed to indicate that APU shutdown was allowed for verification purposes. Please see the note which states 'an APU start verification is an exception to other verification of flight items; as it may be completed AFTER entering ETOPS....' During the flight we ran the APU per normal procedures then shut it down about 15 minutes past the critical point to allow for the 2 hour cold soak. We then restarted the APU just prior to descent then send a maintenance code to Maintenance for successful start. Upon arrival we were told to contact Maintenance. Maintenance informed me that the APU cannot be shutdown and that the correct procedure was to have a phone conference with Dispatch; Maintenance; and Captain before any verification flight.
An ETOPS B737 required an APU inflight verification which the crew thought included running the APU; shutting it down to colds soak; then starting it for landing. After landing; Maintenance said no inflight shutdowns were allowed.