Packer Backer

Personally I carry a portable g-meter in my flight kit. I like to be able to pull 3 g's in a climbing 67 degree bank turn when flying my Boeing full of passengers. (sarcasm) Pilots who think the Boeing is safer because they could outperform the Airbus computers, are delusional. It is like disregarding your low speed tape because you don't trust the computer that is calculating stall speed. The best performance you will ever get in avoiding an obstacle will be in an Airbus. You may get better performance in a Boeing for about 1 second before the wings fall off and you crash into that mountain you were trying to climb over.

crewdawg52

Yea, something like that. But it was no joke.....THE DREADED 6 ENGINE APPROACH. The only hard part was using manipulating the other throttles around those you're not using. Rudder...Hardly any need to use it. Ailerons.....who needs them.......

captjns

Me? No... either has any other airbus pilot either.

captain_drew

As a career long commuter, I probably logged more time on the jumpseat than most posters here have PIC time <g>. It is a French piece of crap.

It seriously worries me when the crew, who have been through all the sterling training, keeps scratching their heads and asking/saying: “What’s that noise? . . . Why is it doing that?. . How come I can’t make it do this?. . ”


Pilots are supposed to FLY. . NOT be an “IT” .. . monitoring the damn computers. . Airbus is ‘pretend’ flying (an expensive GameBoy) .. because your hand is NOT physically connected to any control surfaces. . and you can’t make the machine ‘do’ everything you would like it to do (en extremis) .. and often you are wondering WHAT the hell it IS doing . .and why.

tomgoodman

That's what a lot of asked when we started flying the MD-88. The good news was that you could shut off the new stuff and still have a DC-9 underneath, with some components even predating that airplane. For example, the old Douglas instructor at the LGB factory school asked: "Why does the right hydraulic aux pump have a spring-loaded 'override' position?" After getting the "book" answer about bypassing an overheat shutoff, he said: "Actually, we had a lot of those switches left over from the DC-8 program, so we had to come up with a function for that position on the DC-9."
The slat actuators came from the DC-10, and were therefore so large that they cavitated both hydraulic systems until a restrictor valve was retrofitted. And the sliding windows? Looked like DC-6 vintage!

Great airplane though.

Packer Backer

I'll take that as a no. I've flown both the NG's and 320's and have said your above statements at one time or another for each. But I have never had a problem eventually getting them to do what I wanted. Just click off the autopilot and hand fly it. Yes, you can handfly the Airbus.

And as for your comment about not being physically connected to any control surfaces, do you feel the same about the 777? It is all fly by wire as well, right? What about the DC10? Are you physically "connected" to the control surfaces or are you connected to a pcu?

Maybe it's just that you just don't trust the computers. Do you trust the FMS or GPS? How about the stall computer? How about the IRS or the ADIRU? Maybe it's just that you "prefer" American made cars and airplanes.

Like somebody said before, anybody who hates a modern Airbus has probably never flown one.

ryane946

I think a major thought when purchasing an aircraft is not only how it flies, but passenger comfort.

So I have a question for anyone who has ever flown a A320? What the heck is that annoying noise!!! It sounds like the flaps are coming down, but it takes way too long (a minute or so), and it is way too loud (eeeeeeerrrrrrrrr). You hear it on the ground before push back, and you hear it around engine shut down. It starts to fade out, and it progressivley gets slower (eeeer,eeeer,...eeer,eeer,.........eer,eer). Sorry, I know thats not real descriptive, but if you've ever heard you, you'd know what I'm talking about. I have heard it on every A320 flight I have taken. It is real annoying. The passengers always ask the flight attendent what the heck it is, and I have no idea what it is.

Any ideas?

Daniel Larusso

Ryanne,

The noise you hear is called the PTU or power transfer unit and is basically a backup hydraulic pump. The A320 has three hydraulic systems Green, Blue, and Yellow. The Blue is run entirely by electric pumps or a ram air turbine in an emergency. The Green and Yellow are normally driven by engine driven pumps, although the yellow system has an electric and a hand pump as well. The green and yellow systems share a common two-way pump called a PTU. If the pump senses a certain differential in the pressure between the green and yellow hydraulic systems, it pumps pressure into the weaker system to bring it back up to 3000 psi. The whole idea is that unless you lose fluid, you should be able to keep the all of the major hydraulic systems operational on the airplane in the event of engine or engine driven pump failure. The pump action is kind of like an mechanical accordian flexing back and forth, which is what makes the barking dog sound. You hear it often on the ground because the system does a self test during the engine start process(there are a series of things that will inhibit that aren't worth getting into). You will also hear it on single engine taxis, if the crew elects to taxi on the number 2 because the yellow system will be at 3000 psi and the green at 0 because the engine isn't running. If you single engine taxi with the number 1 engine and turn on the yellow system electric pump, both systems will be pressurized and you won't hear the barking dog, but you will hear a slight whine from the yellow electric pump until the 2nd engine is started and the electric pump is shut off. Hydraulic pumps on all airplanes get worn out like everything else, so sometimes you'll hear the PTU momentarily when the gear or flaps move causing a high temporary draw on one hydraulic system kicking in the PTU. You'll also hear it on shut down if the crew taxiied in on one engine and forgot to turn off the yellow system electric pump at the gate.

captain_drew

Not so. Last American car I owned was a 1965 GTO convertible, which I purchased new, right out of college, before reporting to Pensacola. (wish I had not been so dumb to have sold it)

HAVE owned & Prefer (not necessiarily in order of preference):
BMW
Mercedes
Porsche
Suburu
Toyota (Pickups and Priius)
Volvo

We have, coming up, the 1st generation of aviators who really won’t know how to actually ‘fly’. You saw the article about the hapless All Nippon crew who declared an Emergency because their auto pilot went tits up?

dckozak

OK Packer, your descending into Podunk regional, 5000 ft vector to final. It's a nice warm day with lots of CU's all around, your popping in and out of lthem on your vector to a visual. Two miles ahead, outside the TMA, is Billy Bob flying his 1955 Air Knocker, enjoying kicking around the clouds (probably too close ) His transponder is inop/turned off/ "whats a transponder??" .Nothing. You pop out of a CU and Billy is right in front, thankfully your handi flying your Airbus and don't have to waste time disconnecting the AP. But you need 70 degrees of bank to just miss the Air knocker, 67 will have you clip him and send Billy, you, and 150 others to fate unknown. The Boeing would have done a wing over, if necessary, what did your Airbus do????