The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

Old Technology



Our senior crew who are approaching 65 years of age would have trained in this Link Training for their instrument rating.

I was watching the Airbus (A320 Im pretty sure) I was about to board being prepped for take off last night, it was on a quick turn around having literally just arrived. Most of the activity was obvious, cleaners on/baggage out/refuel etc, but my question is about the small vehicle that pulled up under nose of the jet and plugged in to a small door there. I assume its part of the avionics bay or something? Right under the cockpit.
What would the connection be for, do they download/upload/recharge stuff or something?

smurfjed wrote: »

Annual training time, yesterday was relatively boring, but today I get to evacuate from a burning (simulated) airliner into a swimming pool and get rescued by a dozen or so flight attendants. Unfortunately no bikinis allowed And NO PICTURES,

Just noticed this post. On a serious note do you have to wear full uniform for this test ?Is the swimming pool calm or are there waves ?

Locker10a wrote: »

Pool at my airline was just a regular Olympic swimming pool so no wave machine

Same at my lot. No waves either. Except when the big lad jumped in.

smurfjed wrote:

This thread showed up in my email notifications this morning, but there are no new posts. Confusing

Post & deleted again I'd say.

Here was me thinking, you decided to post a pic in you swimgear

Sounds like the PTU

https://www.askthepilot.com/questionanswers/the-barking-dog-airbus-noises/

davepatr07 wrote: »

It wasn't me earlier on however I just want to ask a pilot on here about this sound that occurred while taxiing to RWY 10 not too long ago.

BA A320 to LHR and along the bravos (now sierras) there was this repeated intermittent sound nearly every sec similar to flaps being lowered or retracted except they wern't visually as I was located over the wing.
Very mechanical and repeated up until the holding point. Anyone have any clue as to what this sound was? Went on for about 5-10 minutes. Tks.

There is a procedure to taxi with just the left engine running to save some fuel on longer taxis (10 in DUB can justify it). Hydraulic power is normally supplied from 2 engine driven pumps, green system from the left engine, yellow system from the right. The PTU runs in the single engine scenario to compensate for the fact that the Yellow engine pump isn't running. It allows components that would normally derive power from the yellow system to be driven via the blue system.
It's a loud machine that is often described as the "barking dog". The single engine taxi procedure calls for the Yellow electric driven hydraulic pump (a backup pump seperate to the engine pump) to be switched on to avoid running the PTU. You'll often here this electric pump as a high pitch whine during single engine taxiing.
For some reason, even if the electric pump is on, the PTU will sometimes run regardless. It sees a slight pressure differential between the Blue and Yellow systems and kicks in. After all, that is it's function, it's designed to run in an emergency scenario where the engine driven pump has failed.

Inquitus wrote: »

Any 737 Pilot's on here, what are your thoughts on MCAS, additional Sim Training (should be required or not), return to air, etc. etc. that Boeing are trying to push the FAA hard on at the moment w.r.t. the 737-Max8, threatening to have to shut down the line if it's not given the all clear soon, FAA being too cosy to Boeing almost allowing them to self certify? Just some general thoughts on where Boeing and the FAA have gone wrong, and what should be the criteria for a return to the air etc.

The airplane shouldn't have MCAS. It needs a bigger horizontal stab as well for that pitch power moment. I'm not convinced the software is sufficient. The whole bastardized "Fly by wire" they built into it is just to replicate the NG flight characteristics. But hey that's what the people a lot smarter than me decided it should have.

I think, despite how close Boeing and the FAA are, when it's certified it'll end up as one of the safer aircraft out there. Boeing can't afford another hull loss. So any lose ends have to be cleaned up on this one before it returns.

I always have a bit of a laugh when flying into Italy and the passengers break out into applause upon landing. "Bravo for getting us down safely!"

But in all seriousness - can the pilots even hear this in these days of post 9/11?

Ha ha. Thats going to make me laugh even more next time. But its great at the same time to see appreciation & respect by the traveling public being shown to the flight crew for what is a lot of responsibility at the end of the day.

Muahahaha wrote: »

Flew into Dublin yesterday and on the approach noticed a private airstrip that Id never seen before, number on it was 27. Anyone know who owns it and what plane flies out of it?

Navan airfield if it was a grass strip?

Muahahaha wrote: »

No it was tarmac with 27 painted on it and stripes for the apron. Has a huge big house next to it and I think some kind of small lake or water feature. Didnt see a hanger or a plane, just the runway.

Dolly's Grove.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.ie/irish-news/underfire-developer-built-airstrip-beside-family-home-without-planning-permission-34544386.html

Thanks Negative G, thats the spot. A runway built by property developers without planning permission, how Irish.