AirBus A380 cockpit 360 view

How do you cross control that thing in a cross wind? I only see one pedal on the floor. Is that a rudder control with toe brakes, rudder only or brakes only? Does the joy stick link to a computer that senses the amount of roll, pitch and yaw needed for landings, take offs and other flying? It actually looks pretty easy to fly.
 
That is pretty cool. I noticed what looks like a camera view from the upper tail section of the plane looking forward. Interesting- I would have never guessed somthing like that would be there.
 
Do they have to return their tray tables to the upright and locked position? And discontinue the use of all portable electronic devices? Saw the laptop..
 
This is kewl. Airbus has had joy stick flying for some time. It sure makes for a clean cockpit.

Mr Salt
2001 540 CPMY
Caterpillar C-12s
Cape May, NJ
 
Mr Salt said:
This is kewl. Airbus has had joy stick flying for some time. It sure makes for a clean cockpit.

Mr Salt
2001 540 CPMY
Caterpillar C-12s
Cape May, NJ
Click to expand...

So how does the rudder control system work? What does the pedal on the floor do?
 
I see two pedals, just the way its supposed to be. I'm surprised nobody commented on the set of t1ts on the center console. Must be for when the pilots get lonely on the int'l flights :grin:..... or maybe just having something familiar to rest their hands on.

What would screw me up is the is having to fly with the left hand in the left seat and the right hand in the other. Although I realize all modern 2 seat cockpits are going this way so i better get used to it. Also notice only the pilot gets Heads up Display.

I wonder what those big levers do on both sides of the cockpit that look like an oversized mirror adjuster?
 
Yep. I see both pedals now. I was looking at the thingie in the middle. I'm guessing the "mirror adjusters" release the large side windows as another way out of the airplane in an emergency. I wonder how much simulator time it would take before a general aviation pilot with average skills could take off and land one of these. It looks like it could be fairly easy to fly once you got the right amount of time in.
 
Nice what a big pile of money can build when the company doesn't have foolish constraints on it like, showing a profit or even just breaking even.
 
I just checked with a customer who is an airline pilot, he looked at the link above. He said that his boeing, and probably these airbuses too actually have windows that open in the cockpit. Not just for emergency use, but even just to get some air while sitting on the tarmac. i never would have guessed they had windows that open up there. I know small planes do but thought big ones would be all sealed up. So that answers my question about the big handles under the window. I'm sure Hampton has something to add about the ease of flying sophisticated planes. But in my experience (and that seat time is limited to a Piper Malibu) the more bells and whistles they have the more you become a manger of procedures as opposed to actually flying. On the Malibu once we take off all that really happens is some button pushing and knob turning.
 
My time goes back to pa-28-140s and 180s and sometimes a Cherokee 6. Very easy to fly but also very hands on. Not a lot of button pushing but they don't fly themselves or land themselves as some of the modern large planes can do. I'm still curious about how long it would take an average skilled pilot to learn how to do a successful take off and landing in one of these high tech planes.
 
Certainly an individual thing but...A few years ago I put my 17 yr. old son in a 747-400 sim and after an hour he was flying a VFR pattern and making pretty good takeoffs and landings. He had very recently finished his private checkride.
 
An airplane is an airplane. The larger ones are very stable. The skill comes in flying it right. Example: Cruising at FL410 (41,000feet) enroute to Atlanta at 0500 from the West Coast - no traffic. Tail winds at atltitude - say 100 knots, at 10,000 feet, maybe 40 knots, but at the surface they are out of the East at 15 knots.

Now, decide when to retard the throttles to idle and begin your decent. Keep them at idle as you descend at max range glide angle to 10,000 at which point you have to slow down (speed limit) to 250 knots indicated, then continue descent to downwind. Once the descent is updated and looks about right, begin to extend the leading edge slats (lift on front of wing). Then, some flaps. For each degree of flap/slat extension, you have a maximum and minimum airspeed. During gusty conditions, the airspeed bounces around so you need to leave yourself about a 10 knot buffer on both ends of a 25 knot window. So, it is really critical to extend the flaps/slats at precisely the correct speed to avoid getting too close to stall or over-speeding the devices.

Continue to update your descent profile and adjust your angle to line up with the final approach course, on glidepath, on airspeed. The airspeed is critical. Once you begin your descent on a 3 degree glide path, you can no longer adjust your rate of descent to control your speed. If you are a little fast, the only way to slow down is to extend the speedbrakes - that causes a bumpy ride and costs you gas (you already spent the extra gas - you could have started down earlier). Get slow, and you have to add power - should have started down later - It's cheaper to fly at altitude due to thin air up high.

Now, as you continue down glidepath, you continue slowing due to drag and extending flaps inside the windows for each setting. Approaching the last few miles, you lower the landing gear (drag goes way up), then as you slow, you keep lowering the flaps to the landing setting. As the jet continues to slow, you complete the landing checklist and at 1000 feet above the ground you add power for the first time in 120Naut miles. If in the clear, you time it to 500 feet. Land the plane smoothly in the touchdown zone, lower the nose smoothly (tough part in a 757) extend the speedbrakes (auto?) which shoves the gear into the runway if you landed too smoothly and didn't compress the struts. Smoothly initiate reverse thrust within ops limits (less than 1.3 EPR or 1.4), time your rollout to use minimum brakes(comfort and wear), minimum reverse thrust (comfort and gas) to hit the high speed taxiway at the appropriate speed for where you plan to exit, and how much further you plan to roll out before crossing the next runway or holding in the line of planes.

During the descent, you program the computer for the approach you plan to fly, the missed approach procedure, the runway, any holding that may occur. You send a message to the company about your ETA. You update the weather. You kiss the folks goodbye (PA), you communicate with the FA's. You adjust the A/C systems (output changes with power in the best of them). You run descent checklists. You figure out your gate. You brief your approach procedure, missed approach procedure. You study your taxi route to the gate. You get an update of the status of the jet that's supposed to be leaving your gate. You find out the next gate for you and your FA's. You get the paperwork for all of the connecting flights for your passengers. You tell the company how many wheelchairs and carryoffs you have (specials).

This is all normal procedures. Double the particular work load for each and every change (runway, gate, approach, holding...).
 
The windows do open up - sometimes by accident on takeoff. We do open them at the gate - yell at the ground crew, clean the windows, take a picture down the jet (see "best desktop pictures" thread or something like that).

The windows are on rails inside the cockpit. When you first unlock the handle/latch, they pop in as you crank the handle, then they slide aft on the rails. Usually, they have a button on top of the handle that pops up to indicate that they are latched. You press the button to start opening them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,241
Messages
1,429,109
Members
61,122
Latest member
DddAae
Back
Top