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Subject: B787 Info From A Ua Pilot


J.O.

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mo32a;

I once calculated that on international work we hand-flew the airplane about 5 to 6 hours per year, and never at altitude, partly because now it is illegal to disconnect in RVSM airspace. Broken down, that's based on 3, at the most, 4 trips per month, handflying from takeoff to about 3000 to 5000ft before engaging the autoflight, and disengaging usually around 400ft on final approach. That's maybe 4 minutes per leg, 8 minutes per cycle, 24 to 32 minutes per month and with vacation, displacements for training and so on, 10 months of flying per year, approximately.

That has to be dealt with. I believe sim rides are still judged on how the candidate demonstrates understanding of the autoflight system, plus all the other usual items for the PPC and IFR renewal. Hand-flying, in other words, is not encouraged. I hope/suspect that is slowly changing.

Don

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1755995.jpgthe Mk1 layout also provides positive feel.

Nice Beaver. Ah hum......

I flew two vintage models back in my early days. One ex-Ontario Gov't (CF-OBY) and the other was ex-US Army (C-GZJJ). One of them, and for the life of me I can't remember which, had a single control wheel that could be flipped over to either seat. Very handy when your meal was delivered from the galley.

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Not at all. The galley in a Beaver is a Coleman cooler located just behind the pilot's seat. :biggrin2:

Ba ha ha.... very funny JO.

You know what, in roughly 800 hours of DHC2 flying, I don't recall ever taking a snack along with me. Probably because I couldn't eat and fly at the same time. Thank goodness for autopilots.

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  • 1 year later...

UPDATE:

Re malcolm's post on an Air France "zoom climb", (http://theairlinewebsite.com/topic/394241-subject-b787-info-from-a-ua-pilot/?p=1583839 ), here is the English version of the BEA Report on the event, which occurred in July of 2011, two years after AF447.

Note the similarities between the two events.

However, this aircraft had nothing wrong with it - it hit a bit of turbulence which the autopilot would have handled but the PNF, (PF was eating dinner) immediately pressed the AP disconnect button and pulled the airplane up to 10deg pitch and took the airplane from FL350 to FL380. The airplane entered alpha-prot (not alpha floor...that isn't available above M0.53) five times before the captain, (the PF), realizing they had "changed altitude" tried to regain cruise altitude using "open descent" and only realized that the autopilot wasn't engaged after the mode wouldn't engage and pushed forward on the stick.

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I guess I should explain, for anyone who hasn't heard that joke: It says that future cockpits will only have a man and a dog in them, the man is there to monitor the aircraft and feed the dog, and the dog is there to bite the man if he tries to touch anything.

It sounds to me as though Beancounters have begun the evolution that began with eliminating the FE (or SO), by replacing the second Pilot with ....a Man. So now, without the dog there to bite him, whenever he's in control without supervision, risk is elevated.

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The "Pilot-not-flying" took control of the aircraft because the "Pilot-flying" was eating his dinner...

I dunno... I think there needs to be some clarification of duties, or some more training... or some more training...

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