SLF here so please excuse if these are dumb questions - but why is there not some sort of sensible minimum altitude for the autopilot? And why isn't the EGPWS connected to the autopilot to disconnect it or override it and start pulling up?
it's not a dumb question at all, I also fly Q400 and in our company the minimum AP engagement altitude is 1000 ASL.. that is the pure minimum and you only follow it if the wx or other circumstances are causing pain. For most of the times we hand fly it until clean and above. Before engagement of AP we have to make sure that your pitch and bank matches the one commanded by the FD, otherwise you shall not engage it. I can't imagine how come a PF can make a decision to engage the AP when the FD is actively pointing down in the brown. That is clearly noticeable and should be a big red flag
Originally Posted by
reverserunlocked
It’s a Q400. At that point you stop asking sensible questions and just shrug. The Q400 has a lot of oddities and the autopilot is one of them.
oh come on now, dare me asking how many hours you have on a Q400? I smell a lot of BS. The AP as in any other aircraft is doing exactly what you tell it to do. I agree that VNAV and RNAV bits are a bit hit and miss sometimes, but for more basic things, it works beautifully
Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
SOP, not OCD.
"The first sector was uneventful, and the aircraft landed on Runway 22 at Belfast City. While it taxied clear of the runway, the co-pilot carried out the ‘after-landing’ checks which included setting the autopilot selected altitude to zero."
this is a stupid SOP. Generally the altitude selected would be zero if you start it up from cold and dark. As par of a normal cockpit preparation we set the altitude 100 feet below the SID clearance. Then once the clearance is taken, the PF adjusts it to the correct one. It works out wonderfully because, if not adjusted, the altitude will stay at something like 3900 or 3400 (most SID altitudes are nice round numbers) and it stands out as an eyesore on the PFD and upon taxi/instrument check you immediately notice you haven't done something right. If it is set to zero - you have tinyzero on the PFD and it is easy to miss.
Avherald also says the crew were reading a checklist at 1300 and were not actively paying attention to the monitoring of the flight. In our company you can do it either above MSA or 3000ft whichever is higher. MSA in Belfast City is between 2900 to the north and 3800 to south. Both pilots should have full attention on flying the aircraft below that point, what are you doing with a checklist in your hand just 1000 feet after departure is beyond me