Ask The Pilot

[Boris spatsky]

I guess you are not old enough yet for look overs...like some of us. I tried a polarised set of sunnies one day with some EFT screens...Every thing went black, but another time in a citation, no worries...maybe different coatings on screens.

Eyes are hanging in there; ears are showing the age now...

 

[mjt57]

... ears are showing the age now...

What, they're starting to droop or something???

 

[Quickstatus]

I have tried the polarised in the plane. Screens are black at 90 degrees, but full bright if i tilt my head a long way. Clearly not ideal to use them in flight!

Surely the airplane manufacturers would have made their LCD screens the same polarisation angle as most P sunnies???

I wonder if the local optician can make a pair polarised to match the workplace screens.

 

[Major]

Eyes are hanging in there; ears are showing the age now...

At least you didn't have to fly the C130A or the CH47C. They are the noisiest aircraft I have ever been in (as a passenger)

 

[jb747]

Surely the airplane manufacturers would have made their LCD screens the same polarisation angle as most P sunnies???

I wonder if the local optician can make a pair polarised to match the workplace screens.

Why bother? Unpolarised Serengetis work a treat. If anything, their colour tends to cut through haze a little better than no glasses.

 

[jb747]

At least you didn't have to fly the C130A or the CH47C. They are the noisiest aircraft I have ever been in (as a passenger)

Yes, but we've most likely flown something like that in the past....

 

[Hvr]

Came home tonight on QF10 enjoying my F seat and watched SkyCam during take off and landings. Two questions:

1) Is the screen resolution better for you in the coughpit if you ever need to view this camera? It looked slightly blurred to me.

2) Is the vision kept after the flight or not even recorded?

Thanks

 

[jb747]

1) Is the screen resolution better for you in the coughpit if you ever need to view this camera? It looked slightly blurred to me.

I don't think that it's normally blurred...though I'm looking at it on a much smaller screen than you had. We use it to help taxi, but whilst a help, especially when new to the aircraft, you can operate without it. There's a second camera too (under the fuselage, behind the nose gear), but that's not fed to the cabin.

2) Is the vision kept after the flight or not even recorded?

As far as I know, it's not recorded at all.

 

[747sp]

What i am wondering is when the plane is flying does the plane behave differently when full or empty? I know the engine thrust will be different but what i am trying to understand is how the plane handles.

 

[jb747]

What i am wondering is when the plane is flying does the plane behave differently when full or empty? I know the engine thrust will be different but what i am trying to understand is how the plane handles.

Any aircraft, or the A380?

In any of the FBW aircraft, the behaviour is pretty much identical irrespective of the weight.

Most are easier to land when they are heavier. Probably counter intuitive, but they become both twitchy and prone to floating when very light. The control laws are different in the flare; basically direct.

The power to weight differs, so they can reward with some pretty sprightly vertical performance when very light. Power changes on approach need to be managed with more care to keep it smooth.

 

[kermatu]

Most are easier to land when they are heavier. Probably counter intuitive, but they become both twitchy and prone to floating when very light. The control laws are different in the flare; basically direct.

A pilot friend in Europe said much the same about smaller turboprops. Think he was flying SAAB 340s at the time. Made sense. Interesting to hear it's the same on the bigger birds!

 

[jb747]

After our comments about the camera the other day, I was given a very 'blurry' camera on the next sector. The downwards pointing camera was normal on departure, but when we looked at it after landing, I'm not sure what it was showing. There seemed to be two pictures superimposed...which overall gave us nothing useful.

 

[747sp]

My thinking was the A380 but when you mentioned FBW I started to wondering about pre FBW the old classic 747-200's, 747 SP or the 767 ?

 

[Saab34]

Any tips or your techniques for Crosswind Landings? Spoken to a few pilots some seem to do it differently than others.

 

[Boris spatsky]

What i am wondering is when the plane is flying does the plane behave differently when full or empty? I know the engine thrust will be different but what i am trying to understand is how the plane handles.

Ours is a handful at light weight, and doesn't respond well at all when heavy (easy to do a hard landing). It's not FBW.

There is definitely a weight sweet spot for landings.

 

[jb747]

My thinking was the A380 but when you mentioned FBW I started to wondering about pre FBW the old classic 747-200's, 747 SP or the 767 ?

I think that because we fly the aircraft at very heavy weights as a matter of course, we become very used to the way they handle at those weights. Lighter then becomes sportier....

 

[jb747]

Any tips or your techniques for Crosswind Landings? Spoken to a few pilots some seem to do it differently than others.

Most flight manuals have specific recommendations for each aircraft. It's not really one size fits all.

The two basic techniques are to point the aircraft upwind so that the drift (track) is down the runway, to flare, AND THEN to squeeze it straight, whilst simultaneously using a little bank to limit any downwind drift,

or

To fly finals with the aircraft aligned with the runway, and some bank being used to cancel the crosswind.

Whilst the later technique was used in the A4G, we'd didn't flare in it, so it wasn't particularly difficult.

You need to be prepared to use lots of into wind aileron once on the ground. In the A4G, 767 and 747 it could be up to full aileron. The A380 may need a little, but the FBW automatically tries to level the wings anyway.

The crabbing (drifting) technique is what the RAAF taught, and what we use in the airline.

The biggest issue I ever see is people who are too keen to decrab. As soon as you do that the aircraft will start to drift downwind, and whilst you can use some bank to limit that, it's not a great idea with really long wings and underslung engines...you don't have a huge margin. With new FOs on the 767, my brief was for the FOs to flare normally with all of the drift intact, and then, if they got bored waiting for it to land, then they could squeeze in some rudder. That normally resulted in only about half of the drift being removed, but as you can land without removing any of it, that was fine.

The second issue is that some people think they have to KICK the drift out. So they make a rapid rudder input, and then the secondary effect comes into play and they end up with a rapid roll input to the downwind (i.e wrong) side. As a bonus, the kickers also tend to end up doing so too early. Squeeze. If you land with a few degrees of drift still happening, it's unlikely to matter.

 

[RAM]

What i am wondering is when the plane is flying does the plane behave differently when full or empty? I know the engine thrust will be different but what i am trying to understand is how the plane handles.

Could not help but think of this when I read your question.


Noticed the larger engine?

It's the flying test bed for the largest next gen (at each point in time) engines. The latest for the B777X is even bigger and will only fit under a modified B747-400. Even then requiring some 'tinkering' to put it mildly.


Preparing To Test the World’s Largest Engine | Commercial Aviation content from Aviation Week

 

[mjt57]

Noticed the larger engine?

. The latest for the B777X is even bigger and will only fit under a modified B747-400.

How's it going to fit under the B777, then?

Does it have stilts for undercarriage?

 

[moa999]

The engines on the big-twins are much bigger than on the quads but I guess they want the protection of the three spares on the test bed