Narrative:

We called dispatch to get performance numbers per MEL. Dispatch wanted us to get numbers from ACARS but there is no provision for this per the mel. There seemed to be a bunch of ambiguity as to what exactly we were looking for because we needed to take a penalty for engine only anti-ice on and ACARS does not allow for this from a pilot perspective on the takeoff conditions pages of the ACARS menu most notably page 2/2. My captain was talking to dispatch and not getting what's required per MEL so I called maintenance and got no answer and I left a message after 2 tries. I was looking for expediency since we had closed door so we did not take a delay. I then called mr. X and he answered and went directly to helping us. He did some coordination with maintenance control and our dispatcher and finally with more information we went with numbers from ACARS performance data. This was still not per the mel but we were confident it was safe and departed without further incident.the MEL needs adjustment if we are allowed to use ACARS data. Maybe adding the note to allow for verbal numbers or ACARS numbers after conferring with dispatcher. Have the mel tell us what we should see in rmks section of ACARS performance data if it becomes an option because to us the remarks we finally got in the end didn't mean a whole lot to us until mr. X explained. Give training to dispatch to follow dispatch procedures per mel and not change procedures to suit their needs.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ170 First Officer reported difficulty getting performance numbers to comply with MEL which states that the numbers are to be supplied by Dispatch but Dispatch stated the ACARS numbers are to be used.

Narrative: We called dispatch to get performance numbers per MEL. Dispatch wanted us to get numbers from ACARS but there is no provision for this per the Mel. There seemed to be a bunch of ambiguity as to what exactly we were looking for because we needed to take a penalty for engine only anti-ice on and ACARS does not allow for this from a pilot perspective on the takeoff conditions pages of the ACARS menu most notably page 2/2. My captain was talking to dispatch and not getting what's required per MEL so I called Maintenance and got no answer and I left a message after 2 tries. I was looking for expediency since we had closed door so we did not take a delay. I then called Mr. X and he answered and went directly to helping us. He did some coordination with maintenance control and our dispatcher and finally with more information we went with numbers from ACARS performance data. This was still not per the Mel but we were confident it was safe and departed without further incident.The MEL needs adjustment if we are allowed to use ACARS data. Maybe adding the note to allow for verbal numbers or ACARS numbers after conferring with dispatcher. Have the Mel tell us what we should see in RMKS section of ACARS performance data if it becomes an option because to us the remarks we finally got in the end didn't mean a whole lot to us until Mr. X explained. Give training to dispatch to follow dispatch procedures per Mel and not change procedures to suit their needs.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.