Perhaps an experienced and impartial Airbus pilot can answer the following questions:
a)What does the Decel light actually indicate ?
b)Do you call decel based on PFD trend or on the light?
c)how often do you use manual braking above 70 knots?
d)Have the safety recommendations from the Cardiff/Ibiza incidents been truly addressed by Airbus Industrie?Has the switch been renamed ASKID/NSWTSRG/BSCU?Have Airbus improved automated warnings to flightcrews concerning brake effectiveness following touchdown?
e)If autobrakes are used so trustingly and widely by Airbus pilots,should their failure to arm be cause for more than just a status message which can be inhibited by the computer during the touchdown and rollout phase above 80?
a) actual deceleration, as measured by IR part of the ADIRS, has reached 80% of selected retardation rate and these are 1.7 m/sec^2 for LO autobrake and 3 m/sec^2 for MED.
b) neither. I call NO DECEL if there is no light.
c) 4 to 12 times per month and certainly every time I fly into LHR
d) I have no idea what safety reccomendations were made based upon Cardiff /Ibiza incidents - may I have some links, please? Switch is still labeled A/SKID & NW STRG. Chances are that Airbus Industrie thinks that every A320 rated pilot knows what the switch does or, in the worst case, knows what B and S in BSCU stand for, therefore obviating the need to add the BSCU label. Also I am unaware of any
automated warning to flightcrews concerning brake effectiveness following touchdown, let alone the one that is need of improvement.
e) if they're not armed, there's no blue light in the autobrake selector pushbutton and no autobrake line on ECAM wheel page and that's not something that can be inhibited. Also autobrake fault caution is
not inhibited from 1500 ft till 80 kt on rollout.
As I see it we have two choices:
As I see it, the best choice is to wait till FDR data are made public and only then go into technicalities.