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Old 13th Sep 2016, 16:23
  #1496 (permalink)  
KenV
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: New Braunfels, TX
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A nice handy TOGA button that sometimes doesn't work is something to be very wary of.
Indeed. And that is the point of riding or at least following the power levers when the autothrottle is engaged. When you're close to the ground and at low speed, thrust is a critical factor for essentially any maneuver and in my opinion (and the way I was trained) the pilots (both of them) NEVER assume thrust is correct but always verify.

Let me put this in perspective: My multi-engine experience was in P-3s. The P-3 has TWO complete sets of power levers, one set each for the pilot (1P) and the copilot (2P). The flight engineer (FE) sits in a seat facing forward just aft of the center pedestal and has access to BOTH sets of power levers. The arrangement means the P-3 had a "voice activated" autothrottle system. By this I mean that it was routine for the pilot at the controls to call out "horsepower XXXX" to the FE. The pilot at the controls has his hand on the power levers on his side (he "rides" the power levers and can feel what the FE is doing) while the FE uses the power levers on the other side to set the desired power. The pilot not at the control places his hand on the pedestal just behind the levers the FE is operating as back up (he "follows" the power levers). In other words, it was SOP that THREE sets of hands are feeling the advance of the power levers, and at least two sets of eyes are checking the torquemeter gauge to verify that power is what it should be.

For me, one pilot riding the power levers while the other is following the power levers while the autothrottle (either flesh and blood or electronic) is engaged is instinctive. Thus it is unfathomable to me that the pilots in this incident were not aware that the autothrottle system for whatever reason was not advancing the power levers, whether that was by design, due to system failure, or due to leprechauns dancing on the center pedestal. But this is because of the training I received and the SOP we followed. To me, it is clear that the training these pilots received and the SOP they were required to follow set them up for failure. And to me, that's very sad. And since managers are involved, I must wonder how long it will take to correct this clear deficiency in training and SOP.

Last edited by KenV; 13th Sep 2016 at 16:33.
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