PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Trimming, Landing & Instructors - HELP!!!
Old 13th September 2008 | 06:32
  #36 (permalink)  
BEagle
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Joined: May 1999
: ATP+Mil
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From: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
After several calls of a normal-tone "Airspeed, Airspeed, Airspeed," it became "AIRSPEED, AIRSPEED, AIRSPEED, ALTITUDE, ALTITUDE, ALTITUDE." I pushed the thrust levers up, and he yanked them to idle. I pried his fingers off the spoiler switch and retracted them, he thumbed them out and clamped his hand down over them. Not consciously, mind you; he was locked into a slow-down and go-down mindset, and was otherwise unresponsive and staring straight ahead. I continued to increase the volume and the tone of my insistance as I used both hands to physically remove him from the controls and take control of the airplane. After I pushed him back in his seat, away from the controls, and a very excited ride-on mechanic who was accompanying us joined me in the cockpit to see what was going on, the catatonic pilot suddenly popped back to life. He turned and looked at me, and said quietly, "you don't have to shout."
Well sorry, but to me that is an extremely poor technique. NEVER, NEVER should you be fighting eachother for control. Fair enough to call 'AIRSPEED' (why not just 'SPEED'?) and make the standard height-to-go call outs, but if no response is forthcoming then it can only ever be "I HAVE CONTROL" and sort the error out yourself. Then "YOU HAVE CONTROL" when you're happy for him to continue - and write it up after landing.

I once had to take control from a student in a 4-jet as he was about to cock up a crosswind landing at an international airport - only to find that the aircraft wasn't in trim either. He hadn't trimed quickly enough when reducing speed following a low drag approach. No amount of call outs would have resolved that, but he relinquished control as ordered and the landing was safe.
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