RJ's and autothrust
#22
When you're starting out, you basically have to guess at a power setting that will give you the speed you're supposed to fly. After a while, it becomes intuitive. Watch the captains you fly with. Mimic the ones that do it well.
#28
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2006
Posts: 787
Also...I wouldn't use autothrottles even if they were available on everything...because I'm eventually gunning for a couple of ACMI jobs on some old old freighters, and those things require a pretty good feel for how a turbine responds to power inputs...I can't imagine starting out a career in a E170, and never having to become fully in touch with the relationship between throttle inputs and engine response. I guess it's not that huge of a deal, but still, the plane navigates itself, the least you can do is get a feel for how to manage your thrust.
#29
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Joined APC: Dec 2005
Position: 7ER B...whatever that means.
Posts: 3,966
I'm not concerned about you "attacking" me nor do I think you are and the RJs ARE lesser planes. But that "simple" system you refer to is actually rather complex and costly and really not of a huge benefit on an aircraft designed to fly relatively short legs. Autothrottle's pay for themselves on the longer legs where they can more accurately hold a speed and more smoothly adjust the power, which saves fuel by eliminating the more significant and less accurate power changes that come from human inputs. They are not designed to be a "cruise control" or crutch to free up time for the pilots to do more important things on the flightdeck (like sudokus and crosswords).
#30
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Joined APC: Jun 2006
Position: ERJ FO
Posts: 1,276
Example: You're level at 8K cruising along and trying to maintain 250 knots. Set the thrust levers so each fuel flow reads 1250 pph (250/2=125 then add the zero). If you wanted to maintain 210 knots, use 1050 pph.
It works at all altitudes, but it's more accurate at lower altitudes (say, below 15K). Also, when you descend, if you want to maintain that speed, drop the power 400pph for each 1,000fpm (i.e. for a 1500fpm descent, drop the power back 600pph). You'll have to bump the thrust levers forward as you descend though to maintain that fuel flow. Takes a lot of the "guesswork" out of it though.