A220 Design Flaw
 

Love how the FAA lets them keep flying with this kind of ****ty design. How do they fix it? Just tell the pilots not to screw up. Sound familiar?

FAA: Inadvertent A220 Autopilot Engagement Almost Caused A Pair Of Catastrophic Incidents (simpleflying.com)

If you kick off the auto throttles while on takeoff roll you set the takeoff thrust manually and wait until airborne to reengage the auto throttles. Reaching up to the glareshield to reengage the auto throttles while rolling down the runway is not a good idea as the autopilot button is directly above it and could be pressed inadvertently.

Attempting to re-engage automation when you really ought to be focused on flying the airplane? Why yes, that does sound familiar.

Totally get that - but it's happened 38 times?

The auto throttles are armed prior to starting the takeoff roll. You slowly push the thrust up until you feel the auto throttles grab the thrust levers and move them to takeoff thrust. If you don't let go of the thrust levers when the auto throttles take over, the auto throttles disengage. People try to push the thrust levers all the way to takeoff thrust manually and disengage the auto throttles. This emergency AD is an awareness campaign. Operators will make their pilots aware of the possible issues. Training curriculum will incorporate these scenarios and instructors will make it a strong point of emphasis during training.

So AB redesigned their A/THR system for just the 220? Or is the 350 different as well? The levers move now, a la Boeing?

Airbus designed nothing on the A220... it was built by Bombardier and then re-branded. Probably more similar to a CRJ than actual buses.

Yes. The levers move. The people that are coming from the E170/175/190 tend to disengage them often early in training. Those aircraft allow you to manually adjust the the thrust levers without disengaging the auto throttles, so it takes some getting used to the new system for them.

Oh yeah. Thats right. Forgot about that whole C100/300 thing. My bad.

The avionics and systems are absolutely nothing like a CRJ. What’s interesting is why is the button installed n the first place and why there? Why isn’t the standard to arm the AT on the pre-taxi checklist? Or arm using TOGA press, engage the autothrottles with the throttle switches, as on other Collins systems.

Why are pilots finger-dicking the FGP on the roll?

Design flaw?

The FAA has stated, in the language of the AD, that the autothrottle must not be engaged, or re-engaged, after the thrust levers are advanced to the takeoff setting, until at least 400' AGL. Not really that complicated.

Imagine actually having to do pilot **** in an airplane. Imagine actually having to fly the damn airplane. God god, what were they thinking?

If the autothrottle isn't engaged for takeoff, or disengages, it is NOT the end of the world. Two pilots. One flying. Another who really can ensure that takeoff thrust is set. If the autothrottle isn't engaged or disengages, focusing on re-engaging it during the takeoff roll is idiotic. Fly the god damn airplane.

This shouldn't be an issue, but not because the buttons are too close together, or because there is a perceived design flaw. It shouldn't be an issue because the operator needs to hire pilots, rather than mere button-pushers who can't continue the takeoff with manual throttle manipulation. Are we really so short of competent aviators that there are those who can't continue or conduct a takeoff without stabbing the automation during the takeoff roll? This isn't an airplane design flaw: it's a pilot flaw.

Yet many still say the MAX had a design flaw, despite being completely flyable.

Just wish the FAA would be consistent. They are just going tell the pilots not to screw up. What is dangerous about this is the fact this was US crews that screwed it up the most. Wait until an airline of real hard core button pushers get it.

Both the max crashes were entirely preventable events that spoke directly to poor airmanship. The right seat pilot at Ethiopian didn't even have a pilot certificate, like a number of pilots at Ethiopian. Think hard about that one.

Not sure what you are getting into with this? The FO at Ethiopian held a CPL issued in 2018.

According to who? Preliminary reports are not factual. Guess we will have to wait for the final report. Whenever that will be.

I'll take the prelim all day long as a source over some guy on the internet.
Unless you know something more, I haven't really followed it.

Ethiopian and the authority there issue their own certificate, which is not actually a pilot certificate, and is not ICAO -recognized. They pay native pilots a fraction of what foreign pilots make, and they use and abuse them. One of the controls that enable them to do this is the certification they're given is their own...the pilots cant' go somewhere else and convert it, or use it anywhere else. The first officer on the Ethiopian 737 Max mishap was not a certificated pilot. Ethiopia has minimal regulation and no enforcement. Duty and rest rules are nil. Abuse of crew is well known and the norm, there. Ethiopian is about profit, bar nothing. The CAA looks the other way on everything. Corruption is rampant on the government side, and on the company side of the house.

I understand that their SIC license is not up to ICAO standards. Are you saying that it involves no actual flight training? Ie the SIC is only trained to operate gear, flaps, and radios and the PIC does all actual flying?

I did not say that. Had I intended, I would have said that.

The SIC on the Ethiopian 737 Max flight, while deemed qualified by Ethiopian government and airline standards, would not be considered qualified anywhere else on the planet.

The PIC was an upgraded SIC. Take from that what you will. The results speak for themselves. If you want to dig a little deeper, you'll find that Ethiopian has an extremely high rate of mishaps and while African flying is not cruising main, the rate of incidents by Ethiopian operators is unacceptably high, and the results of the max incident, not all that surprising.

Temper that by the insight that personnel at Ethiopian, particularly native flyers are universally afraid to speak up due to the abuse and punishment on every level. Fatigue is common, with "dispensations" granted universally to operate beyond legality; legal duty times and rest requirements have no meaning.

A high percentage of expats who go there end up leaving within the first year, and most simply take leave and dont' go back, because resignation is punished.

It's not your uncle's airline.

Agreed, John. There are other second and third world countries that would be in similar position to Ethiopian. They are far, far from standards and requirements in the US, or other first world countries and airlines.

I was offered an #****************an ATPL with any type ratings I desired by a friend at a cocktail party, who was the head of the country’s civil aviation board.