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.
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.
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.
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.
Safe operations with composite aircraft
Composite materials are increasingly used in aircraft design. The A350 XWB is the most recent illustration of this trend. Yet if the benefits of composite materials are not in doubt for airlines, some questions still remain as to their potential effects on safety.
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.
Parts Departing from Aircraft (PDA)
PDAs may be considered by some people as noncritical, especially when the part is small. Yet whatever the size, they may represent a potential safety risk. Preventing them must be the single objective of the combined and coordinated effort of a number of actors.
Airbus Brake Testing
Regulatory aircraft performance is certified as a set of performance models and aircraft physical characteristics that are built and validated from flight test data. While the primary purpose of these models has always been to allow computation of aircraft performance for dispatch, the models used to determine the in-flight landing distances during approach preparation are […]
Aircraft Protection, during Washing and Painting
Non-adherence to the correct aircraft wash-ing/cleaning and painting procedures regularly generate safety events. This article will illustrate, through real in-service occurrences, that even activities performed primarily to improve the appearance of the aircraft and better display the airline logo may affect the safety of operations. The lessons learnt from these events are common: washing or […]
Flight Data Analysis (FDA), a Predictive Tool for Safety Management System (SMS)
Flight Data Recording