In this episode Matt has a look at a case study to highlight the importance of not delaying the implementation of the engine fire procedure.

For extra information on the topics covered today you can also listen to The A320 Podcast epsiodes 13 and 43.

In this episode, Matt looks at EGT overlimits with a case study, background tech, some methods we can use to prevent it as a flight crew and how to deal with it if we experince it.

Support the podcast with patreon www.patreon.com/a320podcast 
or buy us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/a320

This week we start a new series looking at the Auto Flight System in detail. In this episode we cover some general information and the computation of position

There are 4 main recognised sections to the non-technical skills in aviation.

- Situational Awareness,

- Decision Making,

- Leadership and workload management and

- Crew Cooperation.

This episode is about Crew Cooperation.

Crew Cooperation requires the following categories of skills:

- Encouragement of participation

- Consideration of Others

- Supporting of Others

- Conflict Resolution

The scenario of the week is a reflection on yourself. How do you think other crew members perceive you and your actions? Try and think of two situations you've been in where CRM skills were required, one were you feel you did well and one were you would do things differently if it happened again.

vionics Smoke - One smoke detector is fitted in the air extraction duct of the avionics ventilation system. When this detector senses smoke for longer than 5 seconds it signals the ECAM to display a warning,

A single chine sounds

The master caution lights on the glare shield light up

The ECAM displays a caution

The smoke light on the EMER ELEC PWR panel lights up,

And The blower and extract fault lights illuminate on the ventilation panel.

If the smoke is detected for longer than 5 minutes, the caution can be cleared but it remains latched and can be recalled.

When on the ground a dual Flight Warning Computer reset will unlatch the condition.

Each lavatory has a single smoke detector in each compartment and it is fitted in the extraction duct grille. When the detector finds smoke, it sends a signal to the CIDS which then transmits it to the FWC to produce an ECAM warning in the flight deck. The CIDS system generates an indication in the cabin to alert the crew.

In each waste bin there is an automatic fire extinguishing system, these operate automatically when triggered by heat. There are no controls or indications for these extinguishers. The only way to check if they have discharged is by looking at the bottle pressure gauge.

Cargo Compartments - Cavities in the cargo compartment ceiling panels each hold 2 smoke detectors. Each detector is linked to one of the 2 detection loops. The forward cargo compartment has one cavity and the aft cargo hold has 2 cavities. The CIDS receives signals from the detectors and transmits them to the ECAM which displays a warning in the cockpit. the CIDS system has dual channels.

Smoke in 1 cavity activates the cargo smoke warning if; Both smoke detectors detect it, or one smoke detector detects it and the other is inoperative.

If the aircraft is fitted with Cargo ventilation and the smoke warning is activated in either compartment the associated isolation lives automatically close and the extraction fan stops.

A fire extinguisher system protects the FWD and AFT cargo compartments. One fire bottle supplies 3 nozzles, one in the FWD compartment and 2 in the AFT compartment. The bottle has 2 discharge heads, one for each compartment. In essence this means 2 pipes leave the fire bottle, one to the FWD and AFT compartment. The pipe in the AFT then splits to discharge in 2 different areas while the pipe in the FWD compartment can only discharge in 1 area.
When the DISCHARGE pushbutton is pressed for either compartment that action ignites the corresponding squib on the fire bottle, which then discharges the agent into that compartment. If you fire the bottle in the AFT compartment and subsequently receive a warning for the FWD compartment the bottle will be empty. Only 1 compartment can be extinguished. When the bottle has discharged, the amber DISCHARGE light comes on.

A summary of the QRH smoke paper checklist

- As soon as smoke is perceived, call for the paper checklist and do the initial actions.
- initiate a diversion and start descending to FL100 or MEA
- Re-enter the paper checklist and work through though procedure while descending.
- at anytime necessary, apply the REMOVAL OF SMOKE/FUMES checklist.
- If the Fire become out of control, land asap.

Aircraft Fire Protection Systems for the Engines and APU provide Fire and overheat detection and extinguishing systems (as opposed to just fire or smoke detection like in other systems).
The engines and the APU each have their own fire and overheat detection systems. These consist of:
Two identical fire detection loops (A and B) which are mounted in parallel and a Fire Detection Unit or FDU.
The fire detection loops have three sensing elements for each engine. They are found in the pylon nacelle, in the engine core and in the engine fan section
There is one sensing element in the APU compartment.

The Fire detection unit processes all the warnings and cautions originating in the sensing elements.
There are 4 things that will cause a fire warning to appear:
- a fire signal from both loop A and B,
- a fire signal from one loop when the other is faulty,
- a break in both loops occuring within 5 s of each other (flame effect), or
- a test performed using the control panel.
We get a loop-fault caution if :
- one loop is faulty,
- both loops are faulty or,
the fire detection unit fails.

Scenario of the week

Imagine that as you taxi out you get the engine fire warning. Run through the ECAM we've just read out and then think about all the different things you need to consider. You've got ATC, Fire crews, cabin crew, passengers, the company and of course each other to sort out. How will you prioritise them all and what can you ask each group to help you make your decision?

This week is part two of our fuel episodes. If you didn't listen to last weeks episode then go back and download it before listening to this one. 

This week's scenario is one that is commonly given in the sim for assessments and checks. Fuel leak. So in the climb, before you've done a fuel check, you get the fuel page come up with the right wing tank fuel quantities pulsing. What checks do you make initially? Think about information gathering from all your resources. Then how are you going to manage the situation? This is a common scenario because it requires a range of skills to be demonstrated because theres checklists to do, possible single engine handling, faliure management, diversions and all under the time pressure caused by lack of fuel. Head over to our facebook page facebook.com/a320podcast and leave your thoughts on there.

Happy New Year!

Well we've had a couple of weeks break, now we're straight back to it and this week is a good one. Fuel. Theres more to this system than you would imagine actually. 

Here is a summary of the fuel's journey from tanker to engine/APU

Fuel enters the aircraft via the Refuel coupling or (hose connector) on the right wing. There is also the option to have one installed on the left wing if so desired.
The amount of fuel required is selected on the Fuel panel on the right hand side of the fuselage. There is also the option to have a second panel fitted on the wing next to the hose connection.
From the refuelling connection the fuel is carried along the length of both wings in what Airbus call a gallery. It basically a pipe with valves and outlets along it to deliver fuel to the correct places.
Each wing has an inner tank, an outer tank and a surge tank. There is a centre tank in the fuselage. Fuel can be delivered into the outer tanks or the centre tank.

Out of interest, the rough refuelling time at a standard pressure is about 17 min for wing tanks and 20 min for all tanks.

From here, there's then three options for where the fuel can go. One of the two engines or, the APU.

The fuel can be delivered in two ways. By fuel pumps or by gravity feeding. There are a total of six main fuel pumps, two in each of the inner tanks and two in the centre tank. Each pump supplies fuel to the engines.
There's a crossfeed valve which allows fuel from either wing to feed either engine. Then as we reach the engine we have the low pressure fuel valve, which can stop the fuel flow "to the engine. It's closed by either the engine master switch, or the ENG FIRE PUSH pushbutton.

Scenario of the week - What procedures do you have to follow if you are gravity feeding and where are they found?

Thanks, and remember - Fly Safe

As its nearly Christmas we thought we do a more light-hearted episode. This week we discuss the film Sully.

Scenario of the week - Departing your home base, you lose both engines at 2800ft. What will you do?

Hydraulic systems can suffer from a number of abnormal situations. Pump low pressure, reservoir overheat, Reservoir low air pressure and reservoir low level. The electric pumps on the blue and yellow systems can also overheat. All of these will lead to the ECAM requesting that you switch off the pump. If this occurs to the green or yellow systems the PTU, if it is available, will transfer power, not fluid, between the systems recovering the affected system. The blue system can not be powered by the PTU. If the PTU is not available or the procedure ask you to turn it off, the failed system will not be powered. This leads to a single system failure.

In the case of a single system failure the aircraft will remain in normal law so all the associated protections are available. Certain flight controls will be affected based on which system has failed but ultimately Aileron, elevator and Rudder control surfaces will remain powered so controlling the aircraft will be conventional. Flaps and or slats will be slow depending on which of the systems has failed, we covered these in the original hydraulics podcast so it maybe worth having a listen again to refresh your memory. Certain spoilers will be unserviceable.

Things start to become more interesting when 2 hydraulic systems fail. When this occurs the Autopilot will be lost so priority must be given to flying the aircraft and stabilising the flight path, the aircraft will also revert to alt law in 2 of the cases, so this, as usual, means direct law once the gear is extended. The ECAM will display LAND ASAP red, this is a timely reminder that you are now operating on a single hydraulic system, why have we lost 2? what happens if we lose the last system? We will cover all 3 cases of Dual hydraulics failure in some detail shortly but lets just broadly go over what you can expect for each case. If you remember these as a guide.

G+B = Handling Problem
G+Y = Braking Problem
B+ Y = As the green system is available this is the least demanding of the 3 scenarios

Airbus designed the summary pages to give us all of the information we need to help us during the cruise, approach, landing and if necessary the Go around. in the FCOM Pro-ABN-01- Use of Summaries section, more background information is provided. it states that the summaries are QRH procedures created to help the flight crew to perform actions. In ANY case the flight crew should apply the ECAM first, this includes the STATUS page. This is an important point, it is all too easy in a high workload situation to divert our attention to performance calculations and other tasks before completing the ECAM. The ECAM’s for dual hydraulics are not actually that long and the status page will give you valuable information as to the state of the aircraft increasing your situational awareness.

Flight Control Laws

The flight control law is basically the relationship between the pilot's input on the side stick and the resulting aircraft or flight control surface response.
There are 3 flight control laws Normal Law, Alternate Law and Direct Law

As a general rule, normal law deals with single failures of a system and alternate law deals with double failures.

Within Normal Law we have three sub categories,

Ground Mode
Flight Mode
Flare Mode

Ground Mode was designed to make the aircraft behave more naturally when rotating at liftoff. The relationship between the side stick and the aircrafts response is much more like a conventional aircraft.
For pitch control - there is a direct relationship between Side stick deflection and elevator deflection. Once the aircraft reaches 75kts the maximum elevator deflection is reduced from 30 degrees to 20 degrees. If we haven't manually set a trim position using the trim wheel then the THS or trimmable horizontal stabiliser will automatically set to 0.
For lateral control - The side stick demands aileron and spoiler deflection as opposed to a roll rate but its not a direct relationship, the amount of deflection is dependant on the aircraft speed. As a extra bit of information for you, only spoilers 2 to 5 and the ailerons are used for roll. The rudders being a mechanical linkage aren't affected so you just have to remember that they become more sensitive the faster you go. There are no protections at all when in ground law.

Flight Mode
The aircraft will then start to blend smoothly from ground mode into flight law once the pitch attitude reaches 8 degrees. In roll this takes half a second and for pitch it takes five seconds.
There's a good graphic in the FCOM with this information on. Its in
Descriptions - Flight Controls - Flight control System - Normal Law - General

once the aircraft has been airborne for more than 5 seconds we are then in flight mode. This is obviously the one we are exposed to 99% of the time we are operating. As we mentioned a minute ago, normal law keeps us within the aircraft envelope and prevents us from doing manoeuvres that could potentially endanger the flight. It also gives the aircraft certain characteristics when manually flying.
In pitch the sidestick demands a load factor as opposed to an elevator deflection. So an input on the sidestick will give a pitch rate at low speed or a g-load at high speed. This is designed to give an aircraft response that the pilot would naturally expect. One of the first things you notice about the Airbus is the lack of trimming which is for me one of the best features. Therefore if there is no input on the stick the aircraft will maintain its flightpath even if the speed changes. In fact even if you change the thrust or the configuration, the aircraft will compensate for the pitching moments. This makes manual flying very easy and frees up lots of capacity.
With Roll, Again, unlike a conventional aircraft, lateral inputs on the side stick don't demand aileron deflection directly. They demand a roll rate and full side stick deflection will demand 15 degrees per second.
Just like with pitch, the aircraft will auto trim so the bank angle will be maintained when you let go of the stick up to 33 degrees, and will also automatically provide a pitch compensation and perform a coordinated turn using yaw. The maximum bank angle the aircraft will allow you to do is 67 degrees.
Beyond 33 degrees, the aircraft won't auto trim and if the side stick is then released it will return back to 33 degrees. In addition to this, above the 33 degrees, spiral stability is introduced and pitch compensation isn't available. The reason they've written this into the software is because there is no reason to fly at such high bank angles for a prolonged period.

Protections

Angle of Attack -
Autopilot out at Alpha prot, then from Alpha prot to alpha max side stick demands Alpha directly. Alpha floor trigger TOGA thrust and speed continues to decrease until we get back to Alpha max which the speed won't go below.

Load Factor -
+2.5G to -1G clean
+2G to 0G in any config other than clean

Pitch Attitude-
-15 degrees all configs
+30 degrees config 1, 2 and 3
+25 degrees config Full

High Speed Protection-
Autopilot out at VMO/MMO, master caution and overspeed ECAM at VMO/MMO +4 kts, then at VMO/MMO +6 kts, pitch trim is frozen, max bank angle is reduced and a nose up demand is triggered.

Bank Angle -
Max 67 degrees
Reduced to 45 degrees in Alpha protection and 40 degrees in high speed protection
Side stick pressure required to maintain bank angles greater than 33 degrees unless in high speed protection when its zero.

Alternate Law is generally for situations where there has been a double failure of a system which results in either lack of redundancy or integrity of the protections found in normal law. Auto pilot and auto thrust are still available.
You can get alternate law with protections and alternate law without protections.
With protections - has the following characteristics and protections,

Load Factor still has the same protections as normal law (+2.5G to -1G clean and +2 to 0G configured).

Pitch has no protections, the green equals symbols are replaced by amber ones.

Roll is now a direct stick-to-surface relationship. To help reduce the roll rate, in alternate and direct law only ailerons and spoilers 4 & 5 are available. As a note, if spoiler 4 has failed number three will replace it and if the ailerons have failed, all roll spoilers (2 to 5) become available. There are no bank angle protections and the green equals signs are replaced by amber crosses.
Yaw control, as its a mechanical linkage isn't changed although only yaw damping is available.

Angle of Attack protection is no longer available and is now replaced by low speed stability. It's available for all configurations and is active from 5 to 10 knots above the stall speed. Somewhere in this range (as it depends on weight and config) a gentle nose down signal is introduced but this can be overridden. The speed scale now shows VLS followed by a black and red barber pole below V Stall Warning. At V Stall Warning, you get....... the stall warning! which is the words STALL STALL STALL repeated until the speed is back above V stall warning. With this you will also get the associated master warning. The warning can't be cancelled by pressing the master warning button on the glareshield Its important to remember that the aircraft can be stalled.

High Speed Protection is replaced by high speed stability instead. The speed tape looks the same and has the same warnings and sounds as normal law. The only difference is that there's no protection to stop the overspeed. Instead we have a nose up demand from the aircraft but this can be overridden. It's worth noting that VMO is reduced from 350 to 320 knots. I was once asked by a trainer what speed would I select for an emergency descent. There's no right answer here but he said he always selects 320kts because if then for some reason you go into alternate law, you won't have an overspeed to deal with on top of everything else which I thought was a good little tip.

Alternate law with protections lost is the same as alternate law but you don't get the high speed and low speed stability. So basically you only have the load factor limitation which I'll say again as repetition is the key to remembering things, +2.5 to -1G clean and +2 to 0G in any other config.

Alternate law then automatically downgrades to Direct Law when the landing gear is selected down.
Once in Direct Law, all protections and stabilities are lost. We are now essentially flying a conventional aircraft. Pitch now joins Roll and Yaw in having a direct stick-to-surface relationship. Overspeed and stall warnings are still exactly the same as Alternate Law.

The most noticeable difference when going into direct law is the lack of autotrim. 'USE MAN PITCH TRIM' is displayed in amber on the PFD. This is why many of the procedures advise taking flap 3 before gear down if flap 3 is the landing config because then the autopilot will get the aircraft correctly trimmed before it has to be done manually. Any trim adjustments will have to be made using the trim wheels either side of the thrust levers.

Remembering how to draw the speed tapes in each configuration

• Firstly, the high speed barbers pole is the same in all cases, so just remember its black and red - easy
• At the slow end of the speed scale, every case has VLS, its always there, whatever - again, easy
• Normal Law has alpha prot (the tiger tail) and then you can't go slower than the bottom of that so its a solid red bar (think of as signifying stopping)
• Alternate and direct law look exactly the same as each other, they both just go from VLS to a barbers pole just like the high speed one.
• All the equals signs are only green in Normal law, they are amber in alternate and direct.

And that's it. If you can remember those simple rules, next time you're asked to draw the speed scale you will be ahead of most of your colleagues.

Mechanical Backup. Although its mentioned in the same section in FCOM and the flight crew training manual, its not actually a programmed control law. It is used to manage a temporary total loss of electrics, a loss of all 5 fly-by-wire computers, a loss of both elevators or a total loss of both ailerons and spoilers. It's worth mentioning here that this is extremely unlikely and that even in emergency electrical config or a double engine failure, alternate law is still available. This is designed to be a temporary situation just until the affected systems can be restored. Pitch is controlled by the trim wheel and lateral control is done using the rudder pedals, both of which have mechanical linkages (hence the name!). When using the rudder like this there is a significant delay in getting  roll. You will also have to anticipate rolling out as this will be delayed too. You're not going to be able to fly this accurately but its just to keep you safe and stabilised. Unlike Direct law which says USE MAN PITCH TRIM in amber, the PFD will display MAN PITCH TRIM ONLY in red.

This system is closely linked to the Air Conditioning system which we discussed back in episode 2. If you havent listened to it already it may be worth going back and listening to that first.

The main components. The system consists of:
- Two Cabin Pressure Controllers (CPCs)
- One Residual Pressure Control Unit (RPCU) (if fitted)
- One outflow valve, with an actuator that incorporates three motors (two for automatic operation, one for manual operation)
- One control panel
- Two safety valves.

To work out the schedule, the current CPC uses the landing elevation and the QNH we've entered into the perf page of the FMGC, and the pressure altitude from ADIRS.
If FMGC data isn't available, the controller uses the captain BARO reference from the ADIRS and the LDG ELEV selection from the overhead panel.

The system follows a schedule for each flight which consists of four general functions:

- Ground function: It Fully opens the outflow valve on ground
- Pre Pressurisation :During takeoff, it increases cabin pressure to avoid a surge in cabin pressure during rotation (we'll talk about whether this really ever happens later)
- Pressurisation in flight :It Adjusts cabin altitude, and rate of change to provide passengers with a comfortable flight
- Depressurisation :After touchdown, it gradually releases residual cabin overpressure before the ground function fully opens the outflow valve.

Scenario of the Week

You get a call from the Cabin, they are complaining of a loud noise coming from door 2L (at the back).

What is OEB48? Well basically it's an Operations Engineering Bulletin that was issued by Airbus to all operators to cover the possibility of all AoA probes becoming "blocked" which could then cause the aircraft to go into unwanted protections.

• FAC computes GW and sends it to the ELAC.
• FAC uses aerodynamic data to calculate and display characteristic speeds on the PFD
• ELAC computes activation of protections

The reason αprot decreases with mach number is due to two things, compressibility effect and critical mach number. Above about Mach 0.6, Calibrated Air Speed and Equivalent Air Speed diverge due to compressibility effects, meaning CAS over-reads compared to EAS. Airbus and most other aircraft PFDs show CAS on the airspeed tape, so at higher Mach numbers the Vls, aProt and aMax displayed must increase to compensate for the growing difference between EAS and CAS. The other effect is caused by increasing the Mach number into the transonic range. This eventually causes small shockwaves to form on the wing, which grow in size as the flight Mach number and/or AOA increase. These shockwaves disturb the airflow behind them, reducing the lift of the wing compared to subsonic flight conditions for the same AOA. The relationship between CL and AOA are adjusted to compensate. The effect is the stall equivalent airspeed increases because the shockwaves cause CLmax to decrease.
Finally, the shockwaves can also cause the wing to stall at a lower AOA, but this is all dealt with through reduced CLMax and thus higher stall speed.

CAS Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibrated_airspeed

EAS link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalent_airspeed

Critical Mach Number link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mach_number

Accident interim report for Lufthansa Accident http://www.bfu-web.de/EN/Publications/Interim_Reports/IR2014/I1_Report_14_6X014_A321_Pamplona.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

www.A320podcast.com

www.facebook.com/A320podcast

This week Matt & Andy are joined by Jamie from www.AirlinePrep.co.uk and Phil from www.jetpathway.com to discuss the current state of the industry, what to do if made redundant and tips for your CV plus more

Every Summer when we both have our LOE simulator tests we will give you a run through of what we had and how we dealt with it.

The events Matt had were,
- ACP 2 failure
- FWC 1&2 fault
- FCU 1&2 fault

The events Andy had were,

- Auto thrust

- ADR 1&2

- Direct law go around

www.a320podcast.com/podcasts/summer16

This week we look at the Air Asia accident where the crew ended up loosing control of the aircraft at high altitude. We've saved you the effort of looking at the 200+ page report but if you wish to read it fully yourself then you can download it by going to the following link,

http://www.aaiu.ie/node/873

The episode has the details of the event but below are some points to take away from this event.

We can’t prevent external factors like a dodgy solder joint or engineers not fixing an issue but we can minimise those effects on our flight and, as we've already mentioned, there are some fundamental rules which if the crew had followed this accident wouldn't have happened. 

• follow SOPs and use standard phraseology
• Never do a reset thats not in the QRH unless specifically told to by engineers.
• Discuss issues between you and use a structure like DODAR or GRADE
• Improve our knowledge of the stall so we can recognise it and correct respond to it.

This week we take a look at the hydraulic systems we have on board and the best way to remember them.

The basics - The A320 has 3 independent, hydraulic systems. Green, Blue and Yellow. Each system has its own hydraulic fluid reservoir and all three of these reservoirs are automatically pressurised by bleed air from engine 1. If the bleed pressure is too low from engine 1, the system will automatically take air from the cross bleed duct. 

The systems normally operate at around 3000psi

A power transfer unit, commonly referred to as the PTU, enables the yellow system to pressurize the green system and vice versa. This allows the green system to be pressurised by the yellow system when no engines are running via the yellow electric pump. The power transfer unit comes into action automatically when the differential pressure between the green and the yellow systems is greater than 500 psi. The PTU does not transfer actual fluid between the green and yellow system, it can only transfer power.

The green system controls BOTH slats and flaps, the blue controls slats and the yellow flaps.

Reversers – green on the left controls Rev Eng 1 and yellow on the right controls Rev Eng 2.

Flight controls – the Rudder is nice and easy to remember as all 3 systems can power the rudder. The elevator is similar again, the green system on the left controls the left elevator and the yellow system on the right controls the right elevator. The blue system can control both as a backup. The ailerons buck the trend a little, the green and blue systems can power both. Blue is primary on the left aileron and green is primary on the right.

Ground Spoilers/Speed brake – This system uses all 3 hydraulic systems so at least 1 panel would be available in a dual hydraulics failure situation. There are 5 panels on each wing.

Andy's way to remember - panel 1 and 5, the two outer panels are powered by the green system, then the next 2 in, 2 and 4, are powered by the yellow system leaving a solitary panel 3 to be powered by the blue system.

Matt's way to remember (including ailerons) - Going from wing root to wing tip, GYBYG GB

Yaw Damper – follows a similar pattern, Yaw damper 1 on the left green system and yaw damper 2 on the right yellow system.

Landing gear is only powered by the green system. Normal braking is also on the green. Andy's way to remember is G for GOOD brakes. The alternate braking is on the Yellow system as well as the parking brake.

Nose wheel steering is on the green system BUT some older aircraft had it on the yellow system so check your aircraft.

Links & Resources

 Diagrams by Pierre-Michel Gasser - http://pmgasser.ch/

Matt's diagram for remembering the hydraulic systems

In this episode we take a look at air conditioning.

Here's our summary of the flow from engine to outlet vent.

On each side of the system, the bleed air leaves the engine and passes through the pack control valve and into the mixer unit. As the name suggests, it's then mixed with recirculated air from the cabin. The air leaves the mixer unit and before entering either the cabin or the cockpit, trim air valves add hot air to make it the correct temperature. This is hot bleed air which is tapped off just before it enters the packs.

The Reference for this is FCOM-DSC-21-10

The scenario of the week

Dispatch with AIR PACK 1 inop

In the Cruise you get AIR Pack 2 OVHT

Leave your comments below and make sure you visit www.A320podcast.com

Welcome to the first ever A320 Podcast. It's just a short version this week to introduce ourselves and give you an idea of what you can expect from us each week.

Find lots more information at www.A320podcast.com

We hope to help new and experienced pilots with studying and revising for type ratings, simulator checks or promotions. Tell as many colleagues and friends about us as possible so we can grow and create a worldwide community of great airbus pilots.

Show Notes

The Golden Rules for Pilots - FCTM_OP-010_Introduction

1. Fly, Navigate, Communicate

Fly - this is referring to keeping the aircraft safely within its flight envelope and making sure the pitch, bank angle, heading, airspeed etc are all at the desired targets. This is achieved by the pilot flying controlling the aircraft through either use of the correct automation or by manual flying and pilot monitoring assisting and actively monitoring these parameters.

Navigate - make sure you're currently in the right place and heading in the right place. There's no point flying an aircraft at the perfect speed, straight and level if you're pointing at the side of the mountain. This is partly already taken care of in the 'fly' or 'aviate' section because your desired altitude target should be based on being above MSA. Airbus refer to knowing the 4 'know where' statements.
Know where you are…
Know where you should be…
Know where you should go…
Know where the weather, terrain, and obstacles are. I personally would add one more to that last one which is airspace because you might not want to fly into busy airspace if they're not expecting you, and you may not want to fly out of controlled airspace and lose radar control.
Communicate
People often assume that this just means with air traffic control but as pilots we also need to communicate with each other, cabin crew, ground staff, engineers, passengers etc. We also use communication for important jobs such as task sharing or running checklists. Communication is so important and that's why we have our standard phraseology and standard call outs.

2. Use appropriate level of automation

Its very important to make sure that we are always using the most appropriate automation available at any time. If used correctly the automatics can help us by drastically reducing our workload and freeing up our capacity which gives us more situational awareness Used incorrectly they can increase the workload and make a situation much worse. In Airbus' words we have to,

"- Determine and select the appropriate level of automation that can include manual flight

- Understand the operational effect of the selected level of automation
Confirm that the aircraft reacts as expected."

Basically, if the automatics aren't doing want you want, change the mode or take it out all together. Remember that all the automatics out is a level of automation and is a perfectly acceptable option.

3. Understand FMAs at all times

The Airbus has several levels of automation and we all know that there are ways that these can easily bite us if we're not careful.
The most important thing with the Airbus automatics is to ensure that what we select on the fcu or the mcdu is correctly displayed on the PFD or the ND. Understanding the different modes, how they interact and how they revert is very important and we will have a whole episode dedicated to this in the future. This leads on to golden rule number 4,

4. Take action if things do not go as expected

If the aircraft isn't doing what we want, we have to either solve the situation with automatics or take them out all together.
If at any point the aircraft doesn't follow the desired flight path or targets selected then the pilot flying should do whatever is appropriate. If the aircraft is in managed modes, change it to selected modes to demand exactly what you want.
If the aircraft is in selected modes, change it to manual flying.
The pilot monitoring should communicate with the pilot flying, challenge the actions of the pilot flying when necessary or take over if required.

Just a short one this week, next week we'll be looking at Air Conditioning to ease us in to the technical subjects....

This week Matt and Andy take a look at a dual blocked pitot scenario and ask why it might not be a great idea

With airlines parking up fleets of aircraft around the world Matt & Andy look at the difference between parking and storing aircraft and the factors to consider

In this weeks episode Matt & Andy look at fuel spillages and recommend some documentaries to pass the time during lockdown! 

In this special episode to celebrate our 100th show we are joined by Capt Al to chat about the history of the A320, how things have changed and what the future holds. Capt Nick from the Airline Pilot Guy show tells us about the A320 and we share some fun facts!

In this episode, Matt & Andy give you questions 51-100. listen along and see how many you think you can answer.

100 Questions you should be able to answer (Especially if you're looking to become a Captain)

In this episode Matt and Andy take a look at the effects of GNSS interference on the systems of the A320, discuss considerations for pilots and take a quick look at the xLS concept

In this episode Matt & Andy discuss book recommendations from themselves and listeners.

In this episode, Matt is joined by Captain Al as they discuss his personal experience with engine failures. They also give some tips on how to manage engine failures.

https://www.facebook.com/Plane-Safety-Podcast-626543677401564/ 

https://www.planetalkinguk.com 

Support the podcast at patreon www.patreon.com/a320podcast 

or buy us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/a320 

This episode is a fantastic example of workload management, failure management and prioritisation. The report used here can be found at:

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/crippled-smartlynx-a320-nursed-home-after-runway-str-461983/ 

A more comprehensive report can be found here:

https://avherald.com/h?article=4b57c3dd 

This week Matt talks about how runway braking actions are reported and the new technology helping to improve it.

Airbus and its subsidiary NAVBLUE have developed a new technology to use the aircraft itself as a sensor to measure the available runway braking action, and subsequently share that data to the benefit of oncoming traffic and the airport authorities.

There are two new system developments discussed in this episode,

TOS (Take off surveillance) which comprises of TOS1 and TOS2, and,

TOM (Take off monitoring) which currently isn’t available on the A320 but is being evaluated for possible installation.

TOS1 checks flaps and trim settings and does a check of the performance parameters entered in the FMS (aircraft weight and takeoff speeds). This then compares actual performance settings with that entered in the FMS.

TOS2 makes the same checks as TOS1, but additionally, checks that the aircraft is positioned on the intended runway and that the expected takeoff performance – based on data entered in the FMS by the crew,  is compatible with the runway distance available.

If any of these checks compute an error, various ECAMs can be triggered.

TOM monitors the acceleration of the aircraft during the takeoff phase and warns you if a lower-than-expected acceleration is detected. From 30 kt, it compares the expected acceleration with the real acceleration of the aircraft. If the difference between the real aircraft acceleration and its expected acceleration is more than 15 % when the aircraft reaches 90 kt, TOM will trigger the red ECAM warning T.O ACCELERATION DEGRADED

Airbus recommends rejecting a takeoff if you get any of these uninhibited ECAMs on the takeoff roll.

In this episode Matt and Andy discuss the procedures for performing circling and visual approaches.

In this episode Matt & Andy discuss the Lithium Battery Fire QRH checklist and cabin crew procedures and interview Andy from Avsax.com about the risks posed by lithium batteries. 

In this episode Matt & Andy discuss the different types of NPA available and how to fly them.

In this episode Matt & Andy discuss the reasons behind this procedure and tells us the risks if you don't do it.

This week Matt chats to Jamie from Airline Prep about preparing for a new job interview, command upgrades and more

This week Matt and Andy looking at the ACP and the associated systems that make up the communication systems.

This week Matt and Andy look at the features of ADS-B and ATSAW

Pictures to help with the descriptions of the symbols and the MCDU pages can be found on the social media channels;

www.facebook.com/a320podcast

www.twitter.com/a320podcast

www.instagram.com/a320lounge 

Matt and Andy are also looking for volunteers to help with these social media pages as they are pretty neglected both being full time captains. If you think you, or someone you know, can spare just an hour or two a week to help out then they'd love to hear from you either through these social media channels or via email info@a320podcast.com

In this episode, Matt takes a look at the LATAM incident on the 27th March and then talks about the causes of the other 5 incidents that have happened on the A320 family which resulted in landing with the nosewheel at 90 degrees.

The article mentioned in the podcast can be found here https://samchui.com/2022/03/30/latam-airbus-a320-lands-with-nose-gear-rotated-by-90-degrees/#.YkXzaS1Q2-o 

The Video can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MoKBCJQliSk 

Support the podcast at patreon www.patreon.com/a320podcast 

or buy us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/a320 

This week Matt and Andy discuss Single and Dual FCU faults. 

They look at what happens with these failures and how to manage them.

They also give a quick tech refresher on the different levels of failure.

This week Matt & Andy have a look at the FCU panel and how it works

In this episode Matt and Andy take a look at the Pratt and Whitney PW1000G Powerplant

In this episode Matt & Andy have a look at the APU system.

In this episode Matt and Andy answer a few questions from listeners regarding the windshear and high speed protection

In this episode we look at the procedure for a manual start on the IAE V2500 engine

Continuing the series on powerplants, Matt and Andy take a look at the V2500 from IAE

This week Matt and Andy look in detail at a manual engine start on the CFM56, what it is and how to do it

We are back for the New Year! this week Matt and Andy start a new series looking at the engine options available for the A320 family. We start the series at the CFM56

This week Matt & Andy give you their book recommendations and announce the winners of the latest completion to win a copy of Fly! by Richard De Crespigny. Here are their book recommendations,

QF32 - Richard De Crespigny https://amzn.to/2BtpVZE 

Fly! - Richard De Crespigny https://amzn.to/2ClkBsR 

The Smell of Kerosene - NASA https://amzn.to/2BrLZ6Y 

Understanding Air France 447 - Bill Palmer https://amzn.to/2Rbu9iJ 

Flying Concorde: The Full Story - Brian Calvert https://amzn.to/2GvUbsD 

Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed https://amzn.to/2SXYtKz

Riding Rockets - Mike Mullane https://amzn.to/2GBFPXY 

If you were the winners this week then get in touch with your delivery details and we'll get them sent out straight away.

In this Episode Matt takes a look at the BUSS or Backup Speed Scale plus what Airbus has lined up in the future for helping pilots deal with unreliable speed.

We are now running command preparation courses, more information about them can be found at A320lounge.com/command

Thanks for listening.

Support the podcast - Patreon.com/a320podcast