B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 79; Flight Crew Total 9163; Flight Crew Type 4892
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Procedure; Human Factors
Primary threat was unfamiliarity of route and MPTO operations. I had never been there; the Capt said he 'had been there a while ago' and that 'it was no big deal'. Flight plan had notes referencing Class 2 NAV. Ops alert revealed that can be an erroneous message and that turned out to be the case here. I referenced the [manual] and had a stack of questions about the operation. Where was the Cuba overflight code? Capt had never heard of such a thing; called Dispatch; and they located it. What about [operations manual] which detail deviation [and] authorizes deviation in the Gulf of Mexico for non-overwater aircraft. But our 737 is overwater; in fact its ETOPS so O.K. looks like that doesn't apply. Enroute went fine; had to clarify with ATC about ball note for Cuban airspace and whether to call 10 minutes prior or not; no; Miami said; we take care of that. O.K. Spotty VHF comm enroute. Upon arrival in MPTO the ATIS is advertising ILS 3R. Set up for it. Flying the Osupa 1B which ends at Bobud (heading 210 after). We're at 6000 ft. Approach says 'cleared for the RNAV to ILS 3R switch to tower frequency.' Huh? I pull up the RNAV app in my iPad and FMC; ok we're just about at BOBUD and that's an IAF on the RNAV. Go to program it in the box. There are multiple transitions but BOBUD is not one (later confirmed on the ground). (The chart is dated 28 Aug 15; maybe the FMC doesn't have it yet?). Switch to tower and ask for vectors onto the localizer. Tower's response; 'Cleared for vectors ILS 3R'. Um; ok so we're on our own; not too surprising in this part of the world. I get BOBUD programmed in and we RNAV turn onto the approach.  We were really running out of options quickly on this approach. If this had been IMC I shudder to think of the crew that's turning toward the terrain with no good nav data in the box or from ATC. Ours was a fine approach/landing. But far from a 'no big deal' leg.Upon departure the next day ATC told us to 'use your ACARS' to get clearance. There was no PDC. There was a note about datalink but this airplane doesn't have it right? Wrong; we found a procedure in the flight manual for using datalink and we followed it and we got our clearance that way. I've never experienced anything quite like it in 18 years. I am recently out of training. Our international training consisted of one day where we did a mini simulated leg to Hawaii.
Newly qualified B737 First Officer described the challenges encountered on a flight to MPTO; citing his minimal training as contributing.