QF A330 gear retraction?

[grrowler]

I've seen this twice in the last coupla weeks and was wondering if anyone can shed any light on it:

A330 airborne out of CS RWY 15 Cairns 4 departure, requiring an early turn (400') and min 25 AoB, etc.

Seemingly normal except the gear was left extended for a bloody long time. The gear was left down through the turn and then as it continued climbing to the east until I couldn't make it out any more, probably 10nm or so.

As I said, I've seen this twice in 2 weeks- what's going on? :confused:

Thanks
grrowler

[Capn Bloggs]

The gear's not designed to be raised in a 3g turn or

The PNF is so sh1t scared that the jock in the left seat is going to scrape the left wingtip thru the foreshore that he forgot to pull the gear up or

There is an AD out about gear doors falling off when in transit, and therefore must not be retracted until WELL over the water, and in the case of CNS outside 10DME so they don't land on a charter boat or

Airbus pilots are unable to do more than two things at once or

They wanted to make doubly sure they didn't pull the flaps up first!

[Morwheus]

You Aussies have had trouble with their gear for many years. I recall several occasions when you forgt to put it down.....now I know which situation I would rather be in.

Why is it such a surprise to see you forget to retract it after take-off. This isnt an Airbus problem its an SOP one. somebody isnt following SOP. "Gear Up"

As for mixing the Gear and Flap selectors during departure.....dear Aussie friend you either dont fly at all and are trying to sound funny, or you are a complete:mad:

More -whe-us

[phat boy]

hahaha.. don't you luuuuuuvvvvv euro-trash...!!!

Someone loves his airbus "joy"stick and dinner-table. Hey morpheus you should hang with deadalbatross. :yuk:

The airbus as we all know by now is a total f:mad:ing lemon and probably WOULDN'T LET the pilots retract the gear if it could see some trees at the end of the runway.

:eek: :} :E

[Giuseppe Giovanni]

Unfortunately when they built the A330/A340, Airbus in all it's wisdom chose to fit them with C172 brakes to save weight and money and as such, they kinda heat up reasonably quickly. Hence the drivers up front wanting to leave them down to cool.
This procedure of course is not needed on Boeing aircraft!!

[phat boy]

........ thus my ''plastic'' comments on another topic. It doesn't only mean what they make the wings out of. :yuk:

[HotDog]

Another expert opinion , phat boy? With only 7 A330s operating in Australia with QF (4 x A330-200, 3 x A330-300), you have determined that the A330 is a t:mad: ing lemon? There must be some real stupid operators in the rest of the world to have bought hundreds of them and still ordering more.:rolleyes:

[phat boy]

You're not wrong..........!!

Some people will do anything to save a few bucks. Sad isn't it.

[Morwheus]

Hey Phat boy...I hope your name doesnt reflect your ego or your very phat hot head.

The argument isnt about airbus its about you Aussies forgetting to pull the wheels up. I must have hit a nerve...did you forget the wheels one day ? or was that you leaving Cairns twice in the last two weeks not following the the SOP.

Morf

[phat boy]

You French men... why are you so interested in my phat???

I believe what you refer to as "the wheels" would be described by real pilots as:

Landing gear
The Gear
Undercarriage

Take your pick but if you call them "wheels" again I shall be left with the assumption that you know more about snails and frogs-legs than aircraft.

Why do you get so upset when someone points out what a steaming pile of plastic S:mad:T airbus has attached wings to?

[Giuseppe Giovanni]

An undeniable reason why there are so many A330/340 opeartors world wide is of course due to the "fantastic" deals that Airbus offer. Some are, simply put, too good to refuse.
I guess only the test of time will show which was the more economical purchase in the long run.

[HotDog]

A real intelligent, phat-thetic reply.:rolleyes:

[Morwheus]

Hey Phats.....it was you leaving Cairns ....and now you blame the Airbus for your loss of SOP.......... My guess is the only way you realised the wheels...yes the WHEELS!!! were still down was when the Purser came up to give a coffee and wanted to know why you still had three green lights near the WHEEL lever.

I love my Boeing but my question to you Phat boy is have you ever flown an Airbus and I am not talking flight sim 2004. :O

[phat boy]

Well I haven't flown one but I did show my hosty-girlfriend how to fly the SIM one day... the Boeing sim wasn't available. She was disappointed with the homo joystick as she's used to a handling a bigger prong. :ok: but she managed to land it after two goes without crashing in between. That's how easy, stupid and gay the airbus is.

As I recall she said the airplane sucked and promptly lost interest. :zzz:

Yes I blame airbus...

And yes I left the LANDING GEAR down and yes the purser came in to give me.... what??? When I retracted the gear it made no difference that pile just couldn't go any faster.

I don't bother retracting THE GEAR anymore. I don't like touching that tiny little homo junior-burger landing gear knob. :yuk:

[OverRun]

grrowler,

I wonder if it is SOP, brought on by carbon brakes and brake fans. This is only a theory and I welcome informed comment. Maybe this is more of a Tech Lof question than D&G.

The A330 can have brake fans. These may be an optional fitting, and their use if fitted may be at the pilot's discretion. Brake fans cool the brakes. Carbon brakes work best when hot – not cool. The high braking pressure leads to a lower brake wear due to the formation of the silicon film at high energy braking which serves as a lubricant and protector of the ceramic/carbon brake material.
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109138&highlight=carbon+brakes

It makes sense then to have an SOP to leave the brake fans off when landing, and ignore an earlier PPRUNE post on the A330 If you have tight turnarounds after landing on runways < 3000m like we do at CX then it is a good idea. Some wgt penalty I believe (?)So if my theory is right, then the brakes are likely to be warm at Cairns after landing without brake fans. Throw in a quickish turnaround, high ambient temperatures, and they'll be warm on takeoff. It makes me I wonder if they're being left out to dangle to cool them down from their (deliberately) warm condition.

As an aside, the brake temps and implications for the A330 (degrees C and carbon brakes) are given elsewhere as:
300 – do not take off as hydraulic fluid may ignite in the wheel well when gear retracted.
450 – may get smoke from the brake from any fluid contamination (not necessarily a fire)
550 - need brake cooling to prevent acidification of hydraulic fluid
600 - may have a fire, seek outside aircraft confirmation (tower – other a/c… ;)
800 – fuse plugs go and the tires deflate
900 – time for a new set of wheels, brakes and tires
1000 - sign off and go home, quickly. Don't look back as you leave the
aircraft or you may see this
http://www.geocities.com/profemery/aviation/A340_600_brake_test.jpg

[Morwheus]

Phat's I hope this has been helpful. In the great words of Dr Phil "Its sounds to me like you can now move on and leave it all behind you"

Well done. :ok:

[phat boy]

Maybe this is more of a Tech Lof Is that anything like Meat Loaf??

I think the above is a picture of the LONGER LOUDER FART(her) landing after its maiden flight.

All the frog-legs and champagne was wasted. Shame.....

Here it is in all its glory.... (http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=237122&WxsIERv=QWlyYnVzIEEzNDAtNjQy&WdsYXMg=QWlyYnVzIEluZHVzdHJpZQ%3D%3D&QtODMg=QmVybGluIC0gU2Nob25lZmVsZCAoU1hGIC8gRUREQik%3D&ERDLTkt=R2VybWFueQ%3D%3D&ktODMp=TWF5IDksIDIwMDI%3D&BP=0&WNEb25u=QW5kcmVhcyBaZWl0bGVy&xsIERvdWdsY=Ri1XV0ND&MgTUQtODMgKE=QCBJTEEgMjAwMi4gQ2xvc2UtdXAgb2YgdGhlIHRha2Utb2Z mIGNvbmZpZ3VyYXRpb24gd2l0aCBzbGF0cyBhbmQgZmxhcHMgZGVwbG95ZWQ uIEkgYWxzbyBsaWtlIHRob3NlIGh1Z2UgUlItZW5naW5lcyE%3D&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=MzA4Mg%3D%3D&NEb25uZWxs=MjAwMi0wNS0xOQ%3D%3D&ODJ9dvCE=&O89Dcjdg=&static=yes)

[tobzalp]

Haha Phatboy Loved the description of the landing of the Sim:ok: :ok:

[phat boy]

yes well morpheus obviously couldn't hack the pace and has acknowledged defeat (in keeping with french tradition) on the airbus debate.

I'm off to the French forums. .............. :E


.

[Capn Bloggs]

Phat,
I was crying so much reading all that I couldn't see the screen!

Overun,
Please make your pics a bit smaller. You're stressing my 1400x1050 display out with that monster shot!

[HotDog]

OverRun, a great picture of the certification MLWT, max brake effort. Almost as good as the Boeing pix on the 747. They had a biger fire!