I think Uplinkers post pretty much summarises it!
In the early days of your training BE CONSERVATIVE - don't try to be "slick". F1 at 13D is perfectly acceptable and shame on the Trainer if he gave you a disparaging look.
One common error I have seen is people putting MORE energy into an approach when high i.e. increasing speed to dive off height. This is ok but it depends where you are in the approach. If you're at 30D you still have time to bleed the speed off but 15D or less - SLOW DOWN and configure. More energy=less time=higher workload=mistakes/unstable.
The 3 x table is a good back up for a correctly programmed/sequenced FMGC. Again, early days, use 3 x your height + 10 miles. The PROG PAGE profile deviation is
ONLY AS GOOD AS THE INFO IT'S WORKING WITH! assuming you're not on a P-RNAV arrival and your not going to bust any altitude restrictions then "tell" the aircraft what you would like it to be doing at a certain point. For example, if there's a waypoint on about a 15 mile base leg in the arrival you could put a constraint of 210 knots/4000'(agl). The aircraft will now work to this constraint and tell you if your hi/lo on your target allowing you to intervene as appropriate. (There is a "gotcha" with profile information sometimes - long story short just perform a DIR TO your next waypoint (and pull HDG again if in HDG!) to force a recompute of the profile.
Another big help is the wind arrow on the ND - think what that's doing to your ground speed and how it may affect you on base/final. If you're unsure what ATC are going to give you in terms of track miles - ask them! They are a service and there to help (with some exceptions
). Additionally seeing how the aircraft ahead are being vectored using your TCAS can give heads up to probable routing.
Finally, at this stage, I recommend you get F2 out prior to GS*. The A320 tends to "balloon" when F2 is selected which then makes trying to slow and maintain the glideslope a little more difficult - particularly with tailwind or no headwind. Additionally F2 gives you some Flap (drag) whereas F1 is slat only so not much use other than getting you below 200 knots to allow F2.
There's a lot of good advice in all the posts on this thread. Keep thinking ahead of the aircraft, use all resources to enhance your overall situational awareness and be cautious. As your experience and confidence increase you will start to fly to less conservative parameters but still be able to maintain safety meeting all stability requirements. This is your goal but don't rush to achieve it - it will take time.
Enjoy!!
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cactusbusdrvr said:
I use speedbrake and flaps 2 to get down. If I am unstable I turn the autopilot off and just drive it on down to capture the glideslope, open descent down to FAF altitude. If I am really high I will drop the gear, that's a lot of drag with the boards out and flaps 2.
I'd caution this for a new Trainee. You can achieve VERY HIGH rates of descent with OP DES+F2+Speedbrake - MASSIVE with gear too. You would have to be really really high to require all this to achieve profile and it would probably be due to a an ATC screw up or
you not being proactive earlier on in the approach. OP DES towards glide slope is also not a great idea because you will be at THR IDLE. GS from above procedure requires use of V/S 1500'/min because it keeps the A/THR in SPEED mode. High drag, thrust idle, "diving" from above is not how airliners should be flown. If it's got to that stage then perhaps it's time to throw it away and have another go. Additionally, in such a high workload scenario, think about the consequences of forgetting to arm the APPR.......
Fly safe.
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