A320...STBY compass check during taxi

[kuwait340]

Hello...

in our taxi procedure...we check the stby compass against the IRS heading on PFD/ND/DDRMI.

we also do that in our T/O breifing while while on the gate :confused:

in the MEL ...the stby compass can be inop provide the 3 irs's are operative.

so my question is ....is it really required to do that...i know it is not an airbus sop.

what is your idea.

thanks

[Dream Land]

Well if nothing else it's a good procedure to verify that you have one in working order, as far as checking it at the gate, large metal objects tend to make that check useless.

[Slasher]

Personaly I reckon its a check to see that the maggy compass
works ok!

Push comes to Airboos shove I know I got the ONUS/UNOS
rule if it ever got to that.

[SIDSTAR]

Kuwait,

Some Aviation authorities require the crew to check the standby instruments during taxy to ensure correct operation. This was (still is?) part of the UK IR test in the old days. Checking anything you can is also good airmanship.

Pilots' Credo: "In God we trust, everything else we check."

[joehunt]

I can't see that the standby compass can be checked properly during taxi, as acceleration and lag errors are occurring all the time. The only reliable check for a standby compass, is to have the a/c stationary and a long way from any man made electromagnetic interference, for eg., lined up on a runway.

The standby compass needs to be checked for accuracy. Having said that it has to be the simplest therefore the most reliable instrument in the a/c provided it is swung correctly and is "floating", no air bubbles visible and no close interference.

[nnc0]

Could also be a maintenance records requirement. Do you need to enter the hdgs in the log?

[Mr.Buzzy]

Holy smoke Robin! Another Airmanship thread!

Manufacturers are minimising the amount of garbage to do while manouvering on ever busying ramps, so the aeroclub brigade decides that we need to bring back the banter all in the name of "airmanship"??

I once worked for an operator who insisted that part of our TAXI banter included stating out loud that "all instrument glasses were intact"

How about looking at the standby compass during your preflight flows making sure that the float is floating and the seal is sealing and that it aint lying to you?

[PantLoad]

Has there ever been a case where the standby compass was checked to be satisfactory at the gate, but then, during taxi, found to be 'broken'?

Or, has there ever been an accident attributed to a compass that 'broke' sometime after the 'gate check'?

I'm not sure what can break on a whiskey compass. If it's working at the gate, it should work the rest of the flight.

Anyone have any experiences with this...


PantLoad

[fatboy slim]

FCOM does not require the check uring taxi. We don't check it during taxi out (UK 320/321 operation) and personally i agree with the former comments about minimising 'banter' during taxi out. The more time spent looking and checking routing, listening to ATC and not doing checks at places like LGW and MAN has got to be better and safer for all concerned.

[gearpins]

some capts I fly with tell me there was a time when they checked that the compass turns in the correct sense during a taxi turn...
so maybe thats a requirement in certain contries..still

[Dan Winterland]

The requirement to check it has been removed from my company's SOPs.

[cwatters]

> Has there ever been a case where the standby compass was checked to
> be satisfactory at the gate, but then, during taxi, found to be 'broken'

Perhaps it's a trick to help stop you getting lost... "Oh look the compass is broken, wait a mo... it's not the compass ....we really are heading south" :-)