Narrative:

We received this aircraft with MEL 52-10. I have sent numerous letters to the chief pilot about operating this aircraft under manual pressurization. There have been some positive changes to this MEL. For instance; 2 pages of information on how to operate under manual pressurization was helpful. However; I have noticed that there was a change to MEL 21-30 and bulletin xx-xx. Bulletin xx-xx stated that an aircraft shall not depart from a maintenance base where repairs can be made. This line has been taken out of the updated MEL. I still believe that operating under manual pressurization is only asking for problems. Climbing out of ZZZ; the pilot monitoring is only monitoring the cabin pressure. Add to leveloffs and power changes (especially cities like ZZZ1); and we have gotten rid of a monitoring pilot! If we believe that pilot monitoring is more important than pilot not flying; why are we taking away that person's ability to monitor during critical phases of flight? In addition; the MEL currently states that it will be fixed within 1 flight day. This aircraft was a routine overnight in ZZZ2. Since the MEL was written up on mar/xa/09; it is effective for 1 flight day basically till midnight mar/xb/09. The mechanic in ZZZ1 said they would look at the door; yet they may not have the parts to properly fix it. This means that the aircraft could fly multiple legs until it gets fixed. I don't think an MEL that allows an airplane only 1 day to fly before repairs can be fixed means it should spend numerous legs with paying customers. We really should not operate manual pressurization with passengers on board. Please bring back the requirement to have the aircraft fixed when it goes through a maintenance base.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A DHC-8-400 pilot describes the passenger comfort issues; the difficulty operating the aircraft with manual pressurization and the resulting safety degradation when the pilot monitoring is totally engrossed operating the pressurization.

Narrative: We received this aircraft with MEL 52-10. I have sent numerous letters to the Chief Pilot about operating this aircraft under manual pressurization. There have been some positive changes to this MEL. For instance; 2 pages of information on how to operate under manual pressurization was helpful. However; I have noticed that there was a change to MEL 21-30 and Bulletin XX-XX. Bulletin XX-XX stated that an aircraft shall not depart from a maintenance base where repairs can be made. This line has been taken out of the updated MEL. I still believe that operating under manual pressurization is only asking for problems. Climbing out of ZZZ; the Pilot Monitoring is only monitoring the cabin pressure. Add to leveloffs and power changes (especially cities like ZZZ1); and we have gotten rid of a monitoring pilot! If we believe that pilot monitoring is more important than pilot not flying; why are we taking away that person's ability to monitor during critical phases of flight? In addition; the MEL currently states that it will be fixed within 1 flight day. This aircraft was a routine overnight in ZZZ2. Since the MEL was written up on Mar/XA/09; it is effective for 1 flight day basically till midnight Mar/XB/09. The Mechanic in ZZZ1 said they would look at the door; yet they may not have the parts to properly fix it. This means that the aircraft could fly multiple legs until it gets fixed. I don't think an MEL that allows an airplane only 1 day to fly before repairs can be fixed means it should spend numerous legs with paying customers. We really should not operate manual pressurization with passengers on board. Please bring back the requirement to have the aircraft fixed when it goes through a maintenance base.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.