Originally Posted by
ExAscoteer2 View Post
Double Asymmetric as I explained before.
Maybe on the Klassic. Perfectly feasible to fly double asymmetric in the J solely from the LHS.
The J was certainly less of a handful on 2 engines than the K due to the far superior performance, I recall on the K (at light training weights) struggling to coax even 100fpm roc with my leg jiggling from trying to hold the out of trim rudder force. I sometimes used the co to follow through to take some of the pressure off whilst I readjusted my leg. There was also the issue of having to take the gear in the descent which if it was engs 1 & 2 out and utility hydraulics lost meant having to wind the gear down. To do this required the ALM to disengage the normal system by pulling out a handle on the front of the u/c bay and winding the handle like mad (for 240 turns?). With both main gears to deploy either he did both (a very long descent) or the Gnd Engineer could do the other. The drill was normally done with the co reading through the procedure from the Aircrew Manual.
Easier handling aside, and the J could fly level with the gear down at most weights and temps, the J still had the same drills to perform if utility hyds were out. With no co and the ALM (PA) not in the RHS because he’s down the back doing his best ‘Windy Miller’ impression there would be no one to read out the drill. If the ALM had recently practiced it he might be ok doing it from memory but it’s an example of an emergency drill that required 3 (or preferably 4) people. How likely is it to occur so could be disregarded for a 2 man crew? Probably cleared at the accountant’s level but it would take a brave senior officer to make that call I believe.
I never did double asymmetric in the K for training, it was always simulated in the aircraft, in the J it was purely done in the sim. I always found real single asymmetric in the J was different (and a bit trickier) in the aircraft than in the sim so my suspicions were that double asymmetric for real would be considerably worse than it was in training. I did do it in the sim with an ALM in the RHS, that experience led me to believe that they should always stay in the middle seat, where they were used to sitting, as I found it capacity sapping having to explain what I needed him to do to help me. He would have needed a great deal more training to have occupied that seat in my opinion, and I would always have preferred a co sitting there.
During the OCU teach of double asymmetric in the J we would always end with a confidence booster, a double EFATO at rotate at max AUW (70.3T), which was normally survivable albeit with some hefty use of the controls and they sometimes needed the hill off the end of R25 at EGDL to maintain flying speed. Yes, they were expecting it as it was a briefed event, and it was always engs 3 & 4 that went so they kept the hydraulics and could get the gear up, but it was designed to instill a confidence in them at what the aircraft could do. I recall in the K having to brief on route departures in the warmer months were I was going to crash the aircraft if we lost 2 engines during the takeoff…