Gents (any female ppruners here???
),
Thanks for your replies so far.
Roadtrip
It´s today´s understanding that the PIC decides whether it was a hard landing, I agree.
However, we know that this is unreliable (as also current aircraft systems that should decide this issue!).
Mustafagander
AI just suggested replacing a link on the A346 landing gear with an indicator strip. Looks like this is a) unreliable and b) causes landing gear overhauls which may not be necessary in fact...
Spannersatcx
You are correct in your elaboration. However, one cause for inaccuracy is the radio altimeter rate: With the RA being firmly installed on the fuselage, changes in pitch attitude have an effect on RALR, which is apparently not fully compensated by ADIRU data for instance.
The deeper I dig the more I get pessimistic in this issue...
CaptainProp,
Wrong. Several (Airbus operating) airlines have deactivated auto-printout (while still storing the data!) because of poor reliability of the triggers. They were fed up with delays and useless inspections...
Checkers,
I fully agree - unfortunately.
Oldy,
I can tell you from last year´s experience, we would have got the A340 off the ground not too often on-time with the vast amount of "<15> Hard Landing / Structural Load Reports"
But that was also due to a misprogrammed FDIMU...
----
Interestingly, no one has adressed question 1 (flight crew setting the trigger for hard landing / severe turbulence) in detail.
Bearing in mind the AA A300 crash in New York and the recent changes in the Maintenance Manuals concerning severe turbulence, what makes you report a flight through heavy turbulence (and a hard landing)? Your personal perception, cabin crew reports, sinkrate, looking into aircraft data yourself...?
Cheers,
J.V.