Standard calls question

[akafrank07]

What are standard calls?

Why do standard calls vary among aircraft models, based upon flight deck design and system designs, and among company standard operating procedures?

"Standard calls should be included in the flow sequence of the manufactures SOP's or the companies SOP's and with the flight pattern illustrations in the aircraft operating manual"

What does the above abstract mean by flow sequence? and flight pattern illustrations in the aircraft operating manual?

Thanks

[B737900er]

During certain flight patterns or phases of flight, the PF or PM will give a call for example V1 or VR. Go around flap 15 is a standard call. Get the drift?

[akafrank07]

Thanks for your reply :), i now understand an example of a standard call, however i am still unsure to the answers of my questions

[B737900er]

You can't have generic standard calls because a Cessna for example use standard speeds unlike commercial airliners. You wouldn't say V1 rotate in a Cessna would you?

Standard calls vary for the type of model and variation and to what the manufacture wants you to say or do to fly their planes.

[Northbeach]

When trying to understand the term “standard calls” it is helpful to define the terms involved. “Standard” in this case means flight crews are required by standard operating procedures (SOPs) to vocalize specific parameters when they are achieved. For example, if during the takeoff roll the monitoring pilot is required to say V1 when the indicated airspeed reached V1 then when the pilot said “V1 (Vee one)” that would be the pilot making a “standard call”.

“Standard” does not mean exactly the same in all cases. A centimeter in the UK is exactly same as a centimeter in Brazil; the centimeter is a “standard measurement” and identical in both locations all the time. The word “standard” is the same, but the meaning is not. A “standard call” does not mean that the same thing is said at exactly the same time, in all airplanes, everywhere.

Further, because SOPs change all the time, what is a “standard call” today may be changed at some point in the future . So “standard call” does not mean a permanent instruction either.

Two different companies flying identical aircraft, even if they conduct business in the same language, may have completely different SOPs and have little if anything in common regarding which pilot says what and when during the normal course of flying. Yet each company would have their own “standard calls”.

Regarding your second question about “flow sequences”, “flight pattern illustrations” and “aircraft operating manual” without a better grasp of the context in which those terms were used I am unable to help. I know what those terms mean to me, but I can’t be certain how the author used them.

Respectfully,

Northbeach

[RTN11]

One example of a flow sequence would be as follows:

When configuring for an approach it is usually standard practice to slow down to below VFE then call for the first flap selection say 15 or 20 degrees, whatever is fitted. You would then call for gear down, and when below the next flap limit speed call for the final flap setting for landing, say 25-35, again whatever you have.

If you wanted to break this standard flow sequence, say bring the gear down first to get the speed off as you are too high/too fast to get the flaps in first, you might call "non-standard - gear down" as an acknowledgement that the call you have just made is out of the normal sequence.

This is just good crew resource management. Otherwise, people would call for flaps/gear in whatever order they fancied, fly whatever speed they fancied and the other pilot would be totally out of the loop. With these standard calls and sequences, any captain should be able to fly with any first officer without ever having met each other before that flight, and all go to plan.

[akafrank07]

Thanks for your help guys much appreciated :)

"Standard calls should be included in the flow sequence of the manufactures SOP's or the companies SOP's and with the flight pattern illustrations in the aircraft operating manual"

Can anybody explain what flight pattern illustration in the aircraft operating manual is referring to?

Thnaks

[redsnail]

In the Pilot Operating Manual, the manufacturer will have printed out diagrams of flight profiles and the expected speeds/configurations/mode selections you should be in to safely complete the maneouvre.
Eg for the Hawker 800, you'll find the profiles in the POM Section V - Flight Handling.

[RTN11]

The flight pattern illustrations for our aircraft are a typical line of a flight profile, take off/climb, cruise then descent and approach.

They are labelled with the sequence in which things should be done, like calling MSA and altimeter calls at 10,000', and also include guidance on how to set up the autopilot for an approach, including non-precision approaches. Some of these will be mandatory calls/actions, others may just be there for guidance and you could do it another way. Again, if you were going to vary anything from the standard, you would have to make that clear to the other pilot, and have a reason, usually because ATC have left you too high for the standard profile to work.