Pontius – the aircraft is prevented from weathercocking by the pilot.
Centaurus – my question specifically refers to auto brake only.
Cough – yeah could be. Would love to get this confirmed.
Goldenrivett – I’d say this would probably be the main reason, in my opinion, but Cough’s idea could also be it. Would love to get an experts opinion.
Rat 5 –
1. How do you use TR's?
As per SOP, usually fully on touchdown until 70kts then to idle until taxiing off the runway.
2. On an AB do the auto brakes reduce as REV Thr is increased?
The auto brakes on the airbus work to maintain a selected rate of deceleration based on the IRU groundspeed I believe, so the brake pressure would normally vary as needed to achieve the selected rate.
3. Is this phenomenon equal across the fleet?
I have not got enough data, this is not a scientific analysis it’s just an informal query.
4. Do you have brake temp gauges per wheel or per brake unit?
Per wheel.
5. If per unit is there a difference, on the hotter side, between the front units and the rear units?
See 4.
6. Do the brake units have depth pins on them? have you noticed a correlation between the depth reading and the difference in hotness of one side v the other?
Yes and I have not looked for this but will do in future.
*You’re dubious….
So can you propose an alternative theory?
Agg karan – on the fly by wire airbus we release the stick on touch down so there is no aileron input.
Stilton – not relevant to this discussion but if you have a low speed high thrust engine failure on a 45 meter runway and don’t start with your feet up you will not keep the airbus on the runway. This was demonstrated to me by 2 check Captains in 2 different airlines, one was an ex Airbus employed instructor. I flew A320/330/340 foot down for 18 years but am now a passionate foot up man. Just saying.
TngoAlphad _ mate you must be good when you’re rested if you are spotting the obvious like this when you are fatigued. Thanks.
So we have two theories:
1. More weight on the downwind side.
2. Brake wear issues.
As I think about it I think the brake wear issue might not hold up because it would be fairly evenly distributed between upwind and downwind but what I have observed is a downwind hotter trend so I'm tending towards theory 1.