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Old 05-27-2010 | 12:24 PM
  #30  
dundem
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Joined: Oct 2006
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From: L Side
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Landing wings level may be technique and I won't argue with it, but the automation will land the aircraft with no/little crab with the wing down if an auto-land is performed.

From the A330 manual:
ALIGN SUBMODE
Align is a sub-mode of LAND that lines up the aircraft's axis with the ILS course at approximately 45 feet. Align sub-mode is not displayed to the crew.
Note: Align sub-mode is often known as "decrab" function.

If the aircraft aligned the yaw axis with the localizer at 45' and did not put a wing down I'm not sure how it would maintain centerline with a cross-wind. I have routinely touched down with a wing into the wing. There's even a call on all the Airbii that I've flown that is to be made by the PM/PNF if the bank angle exceeds 7 degrees. Additionally, the geometry limits for each type are published by Airbus an FYI (I guess) so that pilots know how much wing down they can use without scraping a wingtip or engine cowling.
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