Ask The Pilot

Thanks, JB. I'd forgotten that the FWC forced a termination of the event after only few days. I was in the US at a conference, on a client's dime, so I returned home on United the day after it started. But most of the Aussies there were stranded and not-happy-Alan.

Separately - would you ever consider donating your log book - or a copy of it - to an aviation museum, assuming any personal stuff in there could be taken out/blanked? Do you know if others have done such? I've no doubt that it would be of interest to researchers in the future, in a number of fields. Usually a donor can restrict access to donated material - for instance, to bona fide researchers; or have no copying etc.
 
I didn’t keep a paper log book after I left the military. It’s been a spreadsheet in various programs, and is in Excel these days.
 
AA300 2019. I'm not sure if anyone wants to discuss this (the quoted discussions, not so much OMaaT's commentary), but its a bit chilling to me:


This may be of interest. The NTSB transcript of the coughpit conversations is #20 at the bottom. Flipp'n hell. Read it all :oops:


Some video post flight:

 
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AA300 2019. I'm not sure if anyone wants to discuss this (the quoted discussions, not so much OMaaT's commentary), but its a bit chilling to me:
Assuming it's complete, there's an awful lot of aviation related discussion that should be there, which seems absent. I don't know that I'd be holding people to account over what amounts to overheard discussion, but, nevertheless, calling it amateur seems to be an insult to amateurs.

As to the pilot technique that got them the problem in the first place...wow. A 10-15 knot crosswind is effectively nothing. Noticeable, but even if you ignored it, pretty much nothing would happen.

During the takeoff roll, the wind will be attempting to turn the aircraft (as it tries to weathercock). A small amount of rudder will counter that. In fact, as you go faster, the amount of rudder required will be reducing, as, with increasing speed, any displacement has greater effect. The into wind wing, will attempt to lift very slightly (the crosswind gives it effectively less sweep) but the Airbus FBW will counter that by itself. In extremely strong crosswinds (above 25 knots or so) you may put a little bit of sidestick in to help keep the wings level, but you don't need much, and in an AB, it doesn't matter all that much if you don't. To use so much rudder that you hit the stop is extraordinary. The only time I've ever done so is in the sim, when given an outboard engine failure right at V1, and even then you'll be backing it off almost immediately.

As you rotate in a crosswind, you'll basically be holding the rudder input static, and simply using aileron as usual for roll control. The upshot is that you'll probably end up airborne with slightly crossed controls (i.e. aileron one way, and rudder the other). This is not an issue. Over the next few seconds (there is no hurry) you slowly reduce the rudder to zero, whilst still using aileron as usual for wings level. At the end, with no extreme or sudden inputs, you'll have controls back in neutral.

Whilst this pilot is blaming the Airbus for his issues, they're nothing but own goals. The aircraft is quite well behaved in a crosswind.
 
At a deeper lever, he didn’t really understand the systems the “Airbus way”?.

Sounded like he is saying the Airbus way doesn’t give him the response to his inputs the way he is used to for previous types?
I don't think he understands a lot of things. Rudder behaviour in the Airbus is really no different to a Boeing. So, if he's stamping the rudder to the stops in a mild crosswind in the AB, he probably did in whatever he flew previously. For a number of reasons, when near the ground the AB flight controls revert to a mode that very closely emulates old styles of control. The Airbus was literally doing nothing to him!
 
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How hard is the adjustment moving from a Turboprop to a Jet rating?

Gents. How was your first ever hand flown airliner landing?
 
How hard is the adjustment moving from a Turboprop to a Jet rating?
I had no problem adjusting. I went from a Saab to a highly automated B777 with just a co-pilot endorsement, so it wasn't that intense, especially from the instructors knowing I was never going to hand fly it under normal circumstances. But I still had to meet the requirements for the endorsement.

Going backward to the B737 was much harder. Luckily I already had half an idea from the 777 in terms of the automatics, which was similar. But it was all of the other stuff that I had to learn from scratch. Again, lucky I had already flown to many of the capital cities from the Saab, so it was more about energy management.

In many ways, the Saab was (is?) actually ahead of the 737 in terms of ergonomics.

Gents. How was your first ever hand flown airliner landing?
Was into MEL at night onto Runway 27...enough said. 😜
 
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What did they have to do to OJK in Manila to make it able to do the flight to Avalon? How long did it spend being repaired please?
The accident happened on the 25th of July, and it was flown to Avalon on the 8th of November. It had been test flown a couple of times over the previous days. At the point that it left Manila, it had been totally repaired. It was going to Avalon to allow the interior to be replaced, as it had become somewhat smelly in the time in Manila. Of course, Avalon managed to damage it again, but that’s a different tale entirely.

My understanding is that both Boeing and QF engineering teams flew into Manila shortly after the event, and did a full survey of the damage. They then went away, planned the repairs, arranged for parts, and hangar space. The repair itself took 5-6 weeks. Boeing did all of the structure and skin, and QF did wiring, cables, etc. As best I recall, it was well behaved on the flight back to Oz.

Bernie and I were up there simply as extras. SOs. We were not actually needed for the flight back, but both of us had requested it. The test flights were done by the manager technical, and the manager flight training. And whilst they were in the seats on departure, it was handed over to us for the arrival…so Bernie got his landing.
Gents. How was your first ever hand flown airliner landing?
Only captains are allowed to do automatic landings….so that first one, and the next couple of thousand, will be manual.

My first airliner landing was in EBP into Avalon. SO to FO training, and I’d just flown it from Tullamarine to Avalon. I probably should have stopped there, as I still recall it as a nice landing. The SCC might remember it differently. Last landing prior to that was in a CT4! First with passengers was a couple of weeks later, into Auckland, in EBW. Don’t recall anything about it, so it can’t have been too scary.
 
My first airliner landing was in EBP into Avalon. SO to FO training, and I’d just flown it from Tullamarine to Avalon. I probably should have stopped there, as I still recall it as a nice landing. The SCC might remember it differently. Last landing prior to that was in a CT4! First with passengers was a couple of weeks later, into Auckland, in EBW. Don’t recall anything about it, so it can’t have been too scary.

I suspect your first landing in the 767 was a touch ‘crunchier’.
 

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