An air carrier crew encountered hail while deviating to avoid a buildup on an atl arrival at 13;000 ...

Narrative:

About 50 miles out on arrival [to atl; we] noticed some buildups on our route. Atl approved left deviation for the weather so we did and still hit some of hail from the buildup for about 30 seconds at 13;000 ft. The plane was damaged by hail mostly on nose area; APU inlet; and some of engine blades. After parking at the gate; our crew left the aircraft knowing another crew was taking over the aircraft without performing post-flight. I; as first officer; should have done post-flight instead of relying on other crew's doing a pre-flight and notify the company about the damage. Referring to the flight operations manual under post-flight inspection section it states that 'in an effort to enhance both safety and efficiency; a post-flight inspection is required unless directly handing over the aircraft to the next assigned crew. Either pilot may complete the post-flight inspection.' even though [I was within] our company's policy; I still feel that I should have done the post-flight instead of relying on next assigned crew.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier crew encountered hail while deviating to avoid a buildup on an ATL arrival at 13;000 FT and sustained damage to the nose cone; APU inlet and several engine compressor blades.

Narrative: About 50 miles out on arrival [to ATL; we] noticed some buildups on our route. ATL approved left deviation for the weather so we did and still hit some of hail from the buildup for about 30 seconds at 13;000 FT. The plane was damaged by hail mostly on nose area; APU inlet; and some of engine blades. After parking at the gate; our crew left the aircraft knowing another crew was taking over the aircraft without performing post-flight. I; as First Officer; should have done post-flight instead of relying on other crew's doing a pre-flight and notify the company about the damage. Referring to the Flight Operations Manual under Post-Flight Inspection Section it states that 'In an effort to enhance both safety and efficiency; a post-flight inspection is required unless directly handing over the aircraft to the next assigned crew. Either pilot may complete the post-flight inspection.' Even though [I was within] our Company's policy; I still feel that I should have done the post-flight instead of relying on next assigned crew.

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	943747
Time
Date	201104
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	APU
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

An air carrier crew encountered hail while deviating to avoid a buildup on an atl arrival at 13;000 ft and sustained damage to the nose cone; APU inlet and several engine compressor blades.