Stuck in ATR has made a reference to Airbus presentation on overall cost savings if Flaps 3/Rev Idle is used. The jist of the presentation is - use Flaps 3 and Rev Idle ONLY if you are able to vacate at the suitable or designated exit (with shortest taxi to your bay) with the use of AUTOBRAKES LOW. If you have to use Med or harsher manual braking the break wear offsets the fuel savings of 7 kgs(for 320). All the saving figures quoted earlier are all paper calculations, assuming that they save 6 to 8 kgs per landing with Flaps 3. What they have not calculated is the additional payment the airline has to make for brake wear. In last one year of operations with Flaps 3 in our airline, the management guys in Flt Ops have showed a saving of 2 million US$ due to use of Flaps 3 and in the same period the Engg Dept has shown an additional payment of 6 million US$ due to excessive brake wear. Moreover, the guys calculating the fuel saving do not cater for additional taxi time due to "next exit" vacation. At 11kgs/min any additional taxi would result in net loss to the company.
Lastly the FDM data for 320 fleet has indicated that the number of hard/firm landings have increased with use of Flaps 3 and the number of cases of high pitch at touchdown (>9deg) have also shot up. Vilas you may be a gifted pilot but for an average line pilot the landing 'g' has shown an increasing trend with Flaps 3.
Last edited by casper63; 6th Jun 2013 at 10:09.