Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

So how do flying hours get counted if you're a flying instructor?

Are the actual hours you're instructing also counted in the instructor's log book and included in the 'count of hours flown' that is often cited when there is a story about a pilot?

And are the hours under instruction entered into the student's log book noting that they were under instruction?

Thanks to all who answer.

If you are instructing, then you are the captain of the aircraft, and as such the hours are yours to log. When you are the student, you log it as 'dual', but not as command.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Why would you turn autothrust off for the climb?

Because it’s the only aircraft where our company SOP allows us to. Although that has now been taken off me. Where a recent change says FO’s now can’t even push the TOGA button to set take off thrust…

Obviously we can’t land the 737 with auto throttle in unless it’s an autoland so I’ll disconnect everything early and manually fly it with what little chance I get left to actually fly an aircraft.

 

[jb747]

QF32, A Decade on – An Interview with First Officer Matt Hicks

LONDON - November marks a decade since QF32 successfully landed back at Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) following an uncontained engine failure. This was the

airwaysmag.com

A man who was not given sufficient credit for the outcome of this event. He was an excellent FO, and I'm sure, is a wonderful Captain.

 

[RooFlyer]

If you are instructing, then you are the captain of the aircraft, and as such the hours are yours to log. When you are the student, you log it as 'dual', but not as command.

I guess it's different with check captains? They only observe (mostly), so no logged hours for them or, logged in that capacity?

 

[Quickstatus]

Circling manoeuvres.

How much extra speed is required compared to a wings level flight

Context : N880Z recent crash

Please and thank you

 

[jb747]

I guess it's different with check captains? They only observe (mostly), so no logged hours for them or, logged in that capacity?

They aren't the Captain. They aren't even really part of the crew. Not command, not dual. I'll ask.

Circling manoeuvres.

How much extra speed is required compared to a wings level flight

Context : N880Z recent crash

Please and thank you

I think it's a bit of a leap for the bloke who made the video to suddenly claim to know the cause of the accident. There are many ways of losing control/situational awareness in an aircraft, and I don't think the NTSB is anywhere near an answer, much less a random youtuber.

The aircraft speeds would not be any different to what is flown any other time that you're in the circuit. As a general rule, the speed buffers give about 47º angle of bank, at 1G.

Final approach speed is mandated at a minimum of 1.23 Vstall, which maintains that stall buffer.

So, if the speed buffer is adequate, which it is, and he's stalled it, then there will be another reason. Aviation history is littered with accidents in the transition from IFR to VFR. Just looking outside at the runway, and taking your eyes off the ASI for too long, would be more than enough.

Do a search for "aircraft accidents during circling approaches".

Aircraft Turn Information Calculator

Approximates details of a turning plane, including tail speed and turn radius, given speed and bank angle.

www.csgnetwork.com

 

[jb747]

One of my friends who was a check captain got back to me....he logged it as co-pilot.

 

[I love to travel]

Would there be any circumstances under which a pilot would pitch the nose up about 2 mins before landing? Coming into Adelaide today very choppy and we were flying over the
Festival Centre and certainly felt like we were being pushed back into our seats it was so sudden. Could have imagined it too!!!

 

[RooFlyer]

One of my friends who was a check captain got back to me....he logged it as co-pilot.

As in ... "pilot monitoring", I guess.

 

[mjt57]

Context : N880Z recent crash

Please and thank you

YouTube tells me that "this video is private"....

 

[jb747]

Would there be any circumstances under which a pilot would pitch the nose up about 2 mins before landing? Coming into Adelaide today very choppy and we were flying over the
Festival Centre and certainly felt like we were being pushed back into our seats it was so sudden. Could have imagined it too!!!

If the weather is anything other than smooth, there could be numerous power and pitch changes during the approach. I'm not hearing anything strange here.

 

[Saab34]

I’ve noticed especially on Airbus that on approach just before gear drop, thinking a long straight in final, seems to be quite a bit pitch up. The gear and flaps come out and it’s much more flat.

Is there a degree sort of limit nose pitch up on final?

 

[jb747]

I’ve noticed especially on Airbus that on approach just before gear drop, thinking a long straight in final, seems to be quite a bit pitch up. The gear and flaps come out and it’s much more flat.

Is there a degree sort of limit nose pitch up on final?

By pitch up, do you mean a nose up attitude, or a change in pitch attitude?

 

[Peasant]

Whilst many airlines prescribe a distance beyond which a go around must be performed, not all do. Emirates did, and look how that worked out for them. Others allow a last point of touchdown to be defined for each landing, which, off my head for 16 Sydney would be about the intersection. The aircraft also has ‘brake to vacate’, and dynamic overrun protection, so unless that started yapping at you, you’d know that there’s sufficient runway remaining.

My guess is that he’s very light, and that the tailwind goes away and even becomes a slight headwind at the flare. He also ends up right of centreline, so quartering wind from the left. And, if the video was shot recently, he may well not have flown all that much lately. A weakness of the A380 is a lack of control feel in the flare. The issue may exist across all of the FBW airliners, but I think size accentuated it in the 380. For that reason I never tried to get greasers. If I did it was accidental. I just killed the sink rate, and then let it go on. Greasers may be how passengers judge landings, but this is a good example of why pilots don’t.

Well this is very interesting. I notice this was SQ 231 on 17 Dec so I'm assuming this crew flew me back to SIN the following day. Two Captains...PIC sounded very flustered in his welcome address which was done during the pushback (very unusual on SQ as it's always usually before doors close). Landing in SIN was...very, very firm. Perhaps the firmest I've had in a wide body.

 

[jb747]

Well this is very interesting. I notice this was SQ 231 on 17 Dec so I'm assuming this crew flew me back to SIN the following day. Two Captains...PIC sounded very flustered in his welcome address which was done during the pushback (very unusual on SQ as it's always usually before doors close). Landing in SIN was...very, very firm. Perhaps the firmest I've had in a wide body.

Conversion training perhaps. Most of SQ is still Boeing, and if so he’s from there, it’s quite a leap before you really become happy with the 380.

Internal voice…don’t float, don’t float. Crash. Singapore is a runway that’s easy to get the flare wrong on, as it’s wider than most, so the picture looks wrong.

As for firm…you obviously never flew with me.

 

[jb747]

I’ve noticed especially on Airbus that on approach just before gear drop, thinking a long straight in final, seems to be quite a bit pitch up. The gear and flaps come out and it’s much more flat.

Before the gear goes down, the aircraft will most likely be at flap 2. That’s fully extended slats on the leading edge, and trailing edge will have a minimal extension. There’s very little drag at this point. The pitch attitude in level flight at green dot speed would be about 8º nose up. Boeing might have been a degree lower, but not a great deal in it. Once the aircraft is fully configured, and at green dot (Vref +5) on finals, the pitch attitude is about 2.5-3º nose up on 767/747 & 380. 737 and 320 look to be similar. The odd man out is the 330/340, for which the attitude is 4.5º nose up. For each 5 knots above the target IAS, the pitch attitude is about 1º lower.

Is there a degree sort of limit nose pitch up on final?

If the aircraft is on a stable finals, then the only reason for the pitch to end up at a consistent higher attitude is flight at the wrong IAS (i.e. too slow), or the aircraft is not configured correctly.

There are no hard limits imposed by the flight controls, but anything above about 7º starts to put the aircraft into tail strike territory. Conversely, anything lower than about 0º puts you in danger of a nose gear first landing. Flapless, or partial flap, landings puts the aircraft on the very edge of tail strike.

 

[Franky]

Before the gear goes down, the aircraft will most likely be at flap 2. That’s fully extended slats on the leading edge, and trailing edge will have a minimal extension. There’s very little drag at this point. The pitch attitude in level flight at green dot speed would be about 8º nose up. Boeing might have been a degree lower, but not a great deal in it. Once the aircraft is fully configured, and at green dot (Vref +5) on finals, the pitch attitude is about 2.5-3º nose up on 767/747 & 380. 737 and 320 look to be similar. The odd man out is the 330/340, for which the attitude is 4.5º nose up. For each 5 knots above the target IAS, the pitch attitude is about 1º lower.

If the aircraft is on a stable finals, then the only reason for the pitch to end up at a consistent higher attitude is flight at the wrong IAS (i.e. too slow), or the aircraft is not configured correctly.

There are no hard limits imposed by the flight controls, but anything above about 7º starts to put the aircraft into tail strike territory. Conversely, anything lower than about 0º puts you in danger of a nose gear first landing. Flapless, or partial flap, landings puts the aircraft on the very edge of tail strike.

JB747, and all of the pilots and aircrew who share their expert knowledge to this forum, thanks again for another year of keeping us all informed. Whilst I don’t always understand all of what is being described, I get the gist of most of it. Problem is, it will be that long before I am able to fly again, I will have forgotten all of the tips to look out for, but it will be fun trying. Thanks again.

 

[D747]

I was wondering if the A318, A319, A320 and A321 have exactly the same engine type and if so are the engines rated differently between the 4 types? I ask because I want to know if an aircraft has the same engine but it is derated, can the extra power be accessed in an emergency?

 

[Quickstatus]

flight directors

the attitude indicator is the instantaneous 3D position of the aircraft in space? - but relative to what?

And the flight director indicates the attitude change to needs to occur to achieve its next intended position?

raw data

What are the raw data?

 

[jb747]

I was wondering if the A318, A319, A320 and A321 have exactly the same engine type and if so are the engines rated differently between the 4 types? I ask because I want to know if an aircraft has the same engine but it is derated, can the extra power be accessed in an emergency?

Looks like there are three different engines used across the family (non NEO). They will differ appreciably in power across the 320 family, with the heavier 321 getting the most, and the 318s the least. The power level will be chosen based on many things, not the least of which is cost. As you dial up the wick, the running costs go up.

It's quite likely that engines (of the same brand) are interchangeable across the types. In fact airlines would almost certainly want that as one of the criteria for choosing a brand. But, as the engines are moved, their power ratings would change, to whatever the new type demanded. In these days of digital everything, that's probably not much more than some jumper settings for the engineers. But, this is not available to the pilots, and there are real dangers to making such choices available. The major issue is that of control of the aircraft with an engine out. Minimum control numbers are very carefully calculated, and then flight tested, and they make up part of the aircraft certification.

The simplest one to consider is Vmca (minimum control speed). That's the speed at which you will be unable to stop the yaw (engine out) with application of maximum rudder and 5º of bank. As you increase the power, this speed gets higher. This will then affect take off and go around performance, as whilst the extra power would seem good, the requirement for extra speed may well mean more runway and worse clearance angles on departure. Basically, all of the certification numbers and performance can be achieved with the rated power, so there's no reason for more.

An example from the real world is the 747SP. It had the same engines as the other QF RR aircraft, but they'd been derated by about 6,000lbs. That was largely a Vmca2 issue, as with the very short fuselage, even with the taller tail, the rudder would not have had sufficient power to control the yaw of two engines out without having an unacceptably high minimum speed. There were also some forms of take off derating on the 380, that involved the use of a fixed derate (which we didn't use). One of the limits with the use of these was that the power was not to be increased in the event of an engine failure until the aircraft had achieved V2.