High-altitude manual flying
Flying an aircraft manually at high altitudes, and therefore necessarily at high Mach number, is a completely different discipline to what it may be like at low altitudes. As it turns out, opportunities to experience manual flying at high altitudes are rare in a pilot’s career. Yet, regulations do require it in certain circumstances, such […]
Lateral runway excursions upon landing
Lateral runway excursions upon landing have long been rather low on the safety issues list. With the remarkable improvements in other areas, they are getting higher up and deserve careful attention. The analysis of real cases allows for drawing interesting lessons on these events and reinforcing prevention.
Control your speed… during climb
Second of a series of articles on the theme of speed control during a flight, which started in issue #18 of this magazine, we have just taken off and are now entering the climb phase. The main objective is to retract the slats/flaps at an adequate speed, while sustaining enough lift to accelerate and climb.
Wind shear: an invisible enemy to pilots?
Weather plays a significant role in aviation safety and is regularly cited as a contributing factor in accidents or major incidents. Wind shear in the form of microbursts particularly, can be a severe hazard to aircraft during take-off, approach and landing.
Understanding Weight and Balance
To “feel” the aircraft response through the flight controls as being “heavier or lighter” than anticipated at take-off can result from a weight & balance inaccuracy. In fact, when the CG is out of the operational limits, the safety consequences can be far more critical than just a strange feeling.
Tidy cockpit for safe flight
One would not normally think of everyday life objects, apparently as inoffensive as a pen or a cup of coffee, as being a real threat to the safe operation of a commercial flight. Yet, leaving them unsecured or forgotten in a cockpit could rapidly turn them into real trouble makers…
Landing on contaminated runways
Landing performance is a function of the exact landing runway conditions at the time of landing. A simple statement for a more complex reality. Indeed, knowing what exact contamination is or remains on the runway at a given point in time is often challenging.
A320 Family cargo Containers/pallets movement
No crew likes the idea of Unit Load Devices (ULD – containers and pallets) moving around in the cargo holds of their aircraft during flight. This type of occurrences may have multiple causes.
Learning from the evidence
In September 2014, Airbus will inaugurate its new A350 pilots Type-Rating course. The drivers for this development were both the EBT (Evidence-Based Training) principles and an analysis of natural learning mechanisms.
Control your speed… at take-off
One of the most critical decisions that every line pilot may potentially encounter during every take-off is to continue or abort the procedure; hence the essential need to properly monitor the airspeed during this phase.