A B737-400 first officer described the deleterious effects of allowing the aircraft to be dispatched...

Narrative:

The first officer's chart holder was removed and was still deferred 3 weeks later. The paperwork says it is loose and we had a mechanic come out and assure us that that is the way it is written up even if it is missing and it is listed as a convenience item MEL.however that is not why I thought it necessary to fill out an as soon as possible. Having that chart holder missing turned out to be quite a distraction. I started out keeping my charts on the yoke but as I flew; the charts would fall and I constantly had to throw them on the glare shield to read the yoke checklist. So I ended up keeping them on the glare shield.we had marginal weather at our destination and having my charts up on the glare shield made it difficult to access different ones when necessary; obviously they were harder to light since the map light was of no use; and continually wanting to look in the wrong place made quite a distraction. It just sort of threw me off and added confusion. I wouldn't want this added distraction after a long day shooting multiple approaches in marginal weather.I don't know why it is a difficult fix or why it is taking so long but I just wanted to point out that it is a distraction. Hopefully this report may help bring this to someone's attention and it can be fixed before it creates a bigger problem.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-400 First Officer described the deleterious effects of allowing the aircraft to be dispatched for three weeks with the First Officer's chart holder removed.

Narrative: The First Officer's chart holder was removed and was still deferred 3 weeks later. The paperwork says it is loose and we had a mechanic come out and assure us that that is the way it is written up even if it is missing and it is listed as a convenience item MEL.However that is not why I thought it necessary to fill out an ASAP. Having that chart holder missing turned out to be quite a distraction. I started out keeping my charts on the yoke but as I flew; the charts would fall and I constantly had to throw them on the glare shield to read the yoke checklist. So I ended up keeping them on the glare shield.We had marginal weather at our destination and having my charts up on the glare shield made it difficult to access different ones when necessary; obviously they were harder to light since the map light was of no use; and continually wanting to look in the wrong place made quite a distraction. It just sort of threw me off and added confusion. I wouldn't want this added distraction after a long day shooting multiple approaches in marginal weather.I don't know why it is a difficult fix or why it is taking so long but I just wanted to point out that it is a distraction. Hopefully this report may help bring this to someone's attention and it can be fixed before it creates a bigger problem.

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.

Attributes
ACN	922635
Time
Date	201012
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Furnishing
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

A B737-400 first officer described the deleterious effects of allowing the aircraft to be dispatched for three weeks with the first officer's chart holder removed.