Virgin Atlantic A340 flaps
 

Hi,

Fairly often after landing on the A340s the flaps are not retracted all the way up, but are only partially retracted. The aircraft then parks and shutdowns in this configuration. I'm interested to know why this is done. I've never seen it done on a Virgin 747 though.

Cheers!

The Airbus A340 has a limitation that in outside air temperatures of more than 30c, the flaps are retracted only to stage 1.

This stops an overheat of the leading edge bleed system, if memory serves correctly.

Same on A320. Can't remember about A330.

Hope that's the answer you're looking for.

Exactly what I wanted to know, thanks very much for the answer!

FLAPS....................................................... ............................................................ .................RETRACT
Set the FLAPS lever to position 0.
If the approach was made in icing conditions, or if the runway was contaminated with slush or snow, do not retract the flaps and slats until after engine shutdown and after the ground crew has confirmed that flaps and slats are clear of obstructing ice. On ground, hot weather conditions may cause overheating to be detected around the bleed ducts in the wings, resulting in “AIR L (R) WING LEAK” warnings. Such warnings may be avoided during transit by keeping the slats in Configuration 1 when the OAT is above 30 °C.

This false warning can be fixed by a modification. All of our fleet have been done, we now bring the flaps in regardless of the outside temperature.

I think easyjet made this modification too. I asked a captain base in Malpensa about that and he didn't know anything about this procedure, he thought that it was only an italian procedure.....

I-WEBA....

Tell him to read their FCOM... Its right in there :hmm:

Thanks for replying! Every easy flight that I've been on the flaps always have been fully retracted.

]mr. PT6A , good answer :D, but why on boeing a/c's flaps N slats are retracted to 0 when it on ground , i mean does boeing make a protection on it's a/c's WAI bleed ducts against icing N hot weather conditions to avoid leaking or what ?

I'm not a Boeing driver so can't really answer your question.

However, I would suspect Boeing make a recommendation about not retracting the flaps after landing if you suspect there to be a build up of contaminant. Or maybe they leave that under the heading of airmanship.

Of course the reason being that damage may result in that area due to the build up of snow and ice.

The hot weather scenario maybe more Airbus specific, however having not flown a Boeing I can't say for sure.

With the Airbus in hot weather, it is simply to avoid a false warning being triggered (EG a false AIR L (R) WING LEAK ECAM)