Many students complain that the material in the JAR ATPL syllabus is not relevant to the real world. I believe that Aircraft Performance is one of those areas where it could and should be very relevant indeed.
I don't claim to be an expert on this or any other subject, but this does not prevent me from recognising lack of expertise in others. Unfortunately most of the "experts" who control the JAR ATPL syllabus actually know and understand very little about the subjects. When faced with problems they tend to take very short-sighted actions without conducting any meaningful research. The question of what to do when V1 is less than Vmcg is one example of this problem.
The performance manuals provided for use in the exams originally stated "Increase V1 to Vmcg." But they did not discuss the hazards involved in this, nor how to avoid these hazards. The manuals were then amended to state "If V1 is less than Vmcg then take-off is not permitted." The amended manual did not go on to discuss what action should then be taken.
The obvious solution at that stage would have been for the "JAR experts" to carry out some research to find out what actually happens in the real world. Or at least in that part of the real world which still uses paper performance data. Unfortunately obvious solutions often aren't at all obvious to those involved.
I was hoping that some current line pilots would add their own experiences to this thread.
Last edited by Keith.Williams.; 23rd Sep 2010 at 16:40.