Firstly I am SLF, with a PPL, no real knowledge of anything beyond that. I do travel a lot on business and I'll try to be humble.
Last week I was in a BA 767 on a short haul in Europe. Sitting in 29K just aft of the wing. I noticed in the straight cruise that the starboard inboard aileron was deflecting in normal straight flight. Perhaps 8-10 cm of permanent down. Since I had never seen this before I was 'intrigued'. I even got up and wandered over the other side to see the port aileron with the same level of up deflection. So, a permanent right aileron trim in the cruise. I was so intrigued I got my bag out from the overhead and took a pic. I can post it if its of interest.
So, my questions:
- How normal was this occurence?
- Presumably the a/c was effectively crabbing along in the cruise, would this be affecting fuel and control?
- After the flight into heathrow I humbly stuck my head into the flight deck and the Captain and 1st Officer seemed interested and wanted to see the pic and even said that they were going to call the engineers to tell them. Where they just being polite?
- How welcome is this type of SLF comment on the flight decks? If I see something odd next time, should I tell or is it better to keep quiet.?
In 25+ years of flying its the only odd thing I have spotted, so its unlikely to happen again. But I did have a shall I?/shan't I? moment before deciding to tell the crew.
Obviously all was safe.
Cheers
Trevor