The flight ops manual is written.. by the flight ops department.
I've taken a few minutes to find public sources for this message :
First, type "flight ops engineer airbus" and find this kind of job offers :
https://www.wizbii.com/company/airbu...s-engineer-m-f
This is an example of a job offer where it states that :
- The flight ops department comprises both pilots ("expert pilots") and engineers
- The guys who actually write the FCTM/FCOM can be interns
With these key words you can type other things in google or directly linkedin : "flight operations engineer airbus", you'll see plenty of people.
"expert pilot airbus" : much less people
These expert pilots often are ex airline TRI/TRE
But you can infer from what you've researched that there are few pilots and many engineers. Which is not surprising since it's a desk job and pilots will cost much more than engineers. (plus let's face it there are many parts of the flight ops documents that don't require any flying experience at all)
Yes you would expect the landing/flare section to be carefully proofread by several qualified pilots.
But it looks like people can go against it without major problems.
We've even read claims here that directly contradict some sentences in the FCTM.
So since (as someone said) I don't fly the bus myself I'm really not sure what's true or false. What I'm certain of is that we need some clarification on this topic.
One reason why the FCOM could appear "incomplete" is because its a very political document. If it was worded in an inappropriate way, airlines having damaged an airplane upon landing could reproach airbus with their FCTM or FCOM wording, and ask them to pay for the repairs.
The flight ops department, when they write these documents, don't think about writing the whole complete truth. Their goal is to keep airbus safe and they write things that way.
They also want to minimize incidents, like hard landings (hard landings are definetely the number one type of incident that Airbus helps airlines with)
So it's possible they'll recommend a flare height that's a bit overestimated, in order to help reduce hard landing numbers.. (longitudinal runway excursion numbers are much lower than hard landing numbers)
For all these reasons I would like an answer from your experience as pilots :
What's the lowest altitude you can start a flare and still make a proper landing ? (from stabilized conditions : -3°, no wind, no stick input before the start of flare, CAS stable at VAPP)