PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - High winds at Schipol. What a landing!
View Single Post
Old 27th Jul 2015, 19:27
  #23 (permalink)  
a330jockey
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Ireland
Posts: 11
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
As I said on a previous reply, a FBW aircraft has a different technique when hand flying and when hand flying in crosswind conditions. On the B737 for example, you can feel the aircraft and everything it's doing. Moving the stick a lot at slow speed in bumpy conditions won't change things much..... you are pretty much still in control of the aircraft. But, on an A320.... different story. She drops a wing and you push the stick the other way. Then she starts turning the other way if you are not quick enough to stop that from happening. In other words, in turbulent conditions on approach you can very quickly get in to a rolling motion which you will only make worse the more you try to fly the airplane like a conventional airplane. The answer? Let go of the stick!!!! That's right. Immediately the airplane stops rolling and starts flying straight. So little movement is best.
On the A330, I used to let the autopilot fly the airplane down to about 300' before disconnecting. The autopilot is fantastic on that airplane! A copilot was making an approach in bumpy and crosswind conditions one day and he disconnected the autopilot about 6 miles out and hand flew the approach. I suggested he reconnect the autopilot and let it do the job. He continued hand flying and fought the airplane the whole way while I jumped nervously in my seat. After we landed and slowed down, he said next time he will use the autopilot!!
a330jockey is offline