Originally Posted by
BO0M
A bit of techinical info for the non ATR (and Jet) folk.
ATR has power levers, those power levers go into the notch (similar to the bus) at take-off (in normal ops) and they stay there until descent. Once you reach about 240 KIAS in descent the power levers come out of the notch and are the pilots to use. There is no auto throttle!
All ATR pilots will atest to the fact they practice circling approaches in the sim constantly and some operations around the world do them as their bread and butter daily. Outside of the EU/UK ATRs rarely operate from ILS to ILS. Due to this reason circling approaches get significant training as does stalling on approach, especially now in the UPRT environment.
Some observations:
- Flap 15 appears to be selected (it should have been 30 at that stage)
- Below 500 ft the stick pusher is inhibited but the shaker remains active
- Left turn onto finals requires the LHS pilot (if PF) to look outside but it can be a little awkward and often leads to elevator input (hence why we practice)
- Selecting flap 30 produces a significant balloon, so much so that you are taught to immediately trim (roughly 3 seconds nose down) to avoid this and maintain speed. Failure to do so can lead to losing 10-15 knots very quickly.
- The body angle appears far too high for an ATR in this stage of flight (indicating a low power setting and slow airspeed)
- When you comibine a number of the factors above with a loss of situational awareness you get what we see in the video. A stall on base turning finals.
I doubt there's an ATR pilot here who hasn't practiced this in the sim or an ATR TRI/TRE that hasn't witnessed a crew get close to this situation in the sim or real life.
I've noticed a few times the mention of the ATR becoming a handful at low speeds. This is not accurate! Yes the machine requires good speed control and a solid case of telling it whos boss, which can make it a handful for low time pilots or pilots who havent got the greatest handling skills. A handfull of power will generally get you away from these low speed situations very quickly if you manage to get yourself there.
My comments are in no way saying this is what happened in Nepal they are for those unfamilar with the ATR. There may well be other factors that the FDR and CVR will show during the investigation.
Previous posters have commented on significant handling differences between the ATR-42 and ATR-72.
What's your view on that ?