B727 flight crew was talked into exceeding 8 hours in 24 after MEL restriction greatly increased the flight time for their two leg trip.
Synopsis
B727 flight crew was talked into exceeding 8 hours in 24 after MEL restriction greatly increased the flight time for their two leg trip.
Narrative
During preflight stab cruise trim was found to be inop in the nose up direction. Maintenance was called & problem written up in the maintenance log. Maintenance found the MEL & showed the crew. It could be deffered but tried to fix the problem but weren't able. There were operational restrictions which included autopilot inop; flight restricted to 15000 FT; airspeed 250 KTS and a max aft CG. We called operations and advised them of the problem. They said they were working with Maintenance Control and the duty officer to try and find a way we could fly the aircraft from ZZZ to ZZZ1. A solution was found for the routing and the outbound flight would take 4 hrs and 5 min at 14000 FT and 250 KTS. I failed to look up the restrictions under autopilot inop which would have been 2 legs of 1 and a half hours or one leg of 3 hours.Our scheduling told us we would be returning to ZZZ ASAP. I called Scheduling and told them we wouldn't be legal to fly back to ZZZ because 8 in 24 would be exceeded and wanted to talk to the duty officer. He said to have a conference call with myself; himself and the scheduling supervisor before talking to the duty officer. They convinced me we were legal because scheduled block of the original trip was for less than 8 in 24 so we could leave and get the required rest in ZZZ. We departed and landed in ZZZ. Weather was clear the entire route and at both airports both ways.Lessons Learned:(1) When confronted with an MEL operation limitation ensure to reference and check all other equipment MEL restrictions. In this case resulting autopilot inop flight hour limitation.(2) When confronted with exceeding 8 hrs in 24; ensure you talk to the duty officer directly and don't let anyone tell you its OK as long as you take off prior to exceeding 8 hrs. If you are going to exceed 8 in 24 don't go.
Second reporter narrative
Company changed the flight plan to reflect the limitations and the flight to ZZZ1 with a return to ZZZ was completed without incident. The next day I found that there were some questions about further limitations related to the MEL that would have prohibited us from flying the aircraft for as long as our flight plan required.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.