There are printers on airplanes?
Posted by Civil-Season-8297@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 19 comments
Hi guys! I was shocked to find out that there are printers on airplanes! So interesting. What is the purpose of these printers? Do you think that they'll switch to something more electronic soon?
Also, if you're a pilot, do you like using these printers?
m1mike@reddit
Paging u/PDelahanty
Rilex1@reddit
there already are electronic alternatives but nothing else will print a load report 15 when you sign your name onto the tarmac.
wilburpilot@reddit
They’re used for printing out useful info such as weather, gate information, communications from dispatch, and the fact that I lost my nice Caribbean overnight for the third time this month!
All the planes are certified with them, so I doubt they’re going away. Although I can most certainly get everything on my EFB, having a paper copy in view of both pilots is handy so we’re not stuck heads down in the iPads.
They’re ok!
flyingron@reddit
Hell, they've barely got rid of the hideous dot matrix printers at the gate with the 30-foot-long dispatch printouts ;)
IndependenceStock417@reddit
Ops agent here and I love my dot matrix printer (when it works) lol
DanThePilot_Mann@reddit
They’ve been deactivated at my company. Now its a mailbox
JasonThree@reddit
I only use it to have a piece of paper to write with. I don't print anything out other than the clearance. Amended release maybe. Most everything that gets printed out is able to be recalled through ACARS, so printing things out is dumb. Don't get me started on those that print out the atis every hour...on a 4 hour flight. 🙄
Rainebowraine123@reddit
In the CRJ at 9E all we use them for is printing out the PDC. Occasionally new fuel numbers when the route changes for the 6th time out of LGA.
Ok-Money2811@reddit
The final exam for your type rating on the Airbus is correctly loading the roll of paper. If you can do that you should be able to handle anything else in the flight deck…
jojerr@reddit
I stand by the fact the printer is the hardest component in the airbus cockpit.....It always takes me at least 2 tries and lots of crumpled paper
fly-guy@reddit
It's especially fun of they supply a roll which is not meant for an Airbus and it's slightly bigger. Not too big not too fit, but to buy to get the paper through the mechanism.
It will take a while before you will notice....
AtariFerrariNH@reddit
To print stuff, duh!
bingeflying@reddit
I love my printer!
YamComprehensive7186@reddit
If you're the F/O on a CRJ you'll spend a good portion of your day un-jamming the printer.
JPAV8R@reddit
Didn’t you ask this last night in another flying forum?
saml01@reddit
Its for the sky police to print out tickets.
yaboygoalie@reddit
Yeah super helpful.
On a typical flight before pushing from the gate we will print our Clearance, Performance Numbers, some of the guys will print the weather, but that’s easily accessible elsewhere, and also just blank scratch paper to write on.
As a first officer, it’s nice to have the paper copies for when we run certain checklists, as the number of displays in the flight deck is limited and trying to pull up performance numbers etc to verify them when the time comes would take longer than just having the paper copy on the clip next to the displays.
It’s kind of like tabs on a computer, you can only have so many up at once and if you’re going to be flicking through them it might be easier to just print one.
CapeGreg767@reddit
At our airline it was required to write down clearances, so having printers on board was nice as it insured accuracy and it was definitely much faster to print it out then write it down.
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Hi guys! I was shocked to find out that there are printers on airplanes! So interesting. What is the purpose of these printers? Do you think that they'll switch to something more electronic soon?
Also, if you're a pilot, do you like using these printers?
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