India Four Two
12th Dec 2014, 22:43
About a month ago, through a well-connected friend, I was offered an hour in an A330 Level D simulator. It was not difficult to accept the offer, even though it meant a four-hour flight to get to the training centre. :)
I’m a PPL with no large aircraft experience, but I used to have an IR and pre-2001, I had several jump seat rides on various commercial aircraft. I had previously flown a 737 NG simulator and was very keen to see how the Airbus differed from the Boeing.
In preparation for the flight, I downloaded and read the appropriate parts of the A330 Flight Crew Training Manual. Following a request for other appropriate information on the “Questions” forum, FlightDetent pointed me to the more useful (from my point of view) A330 Flight Deck and Systems Briefing for Pilots and fantom reminded me to be aware of the inertia of such a large aeroplane.
Yesterday morning, I had a call to say that the A330 was “AOG”, but they were hoping to have it fixed by today.
Then in the afternoon, I had a bad news/good news call. The A330 had not been fixed, but they had arranged a slot for me in an A380 sim! :ok:
So today was the day. The cockpit of the A380 is very similar to the A330 I had been studying, with the obvious difference of four power levers and lack of a manual trim wheel plus differences in instrument layout and controls, that were not relevant to the manual flying that I was going to do. The cockpit is smaller than I had expected for the size of the aircraft. I sat in the left seat and after adjusting the seat and armrest, was able to comfortably manipulate the sidestick and the rudder pedals. Normally, I don’t like flying with a stick in my left hand but this felt quite comfortable after a short while, mainly due to the forearm support provided by the armrest.
I did an initial takeoff from Doha, flying manually, but with auto throttle to handle the speed. It was very simple - brakes off, power levers to TOGA, keep straight with the rudder, rotate after the automatic V1 callout, positive ROC - gear up, power levers back to the CLB detent and flaps up in stages at the appropriate speeds. The visual display is very impressive and you very quickly forget you are looking at a synthetic world outside.
I then did some manoeuvring in Normal Law. Medium turns are very easy - deflect the stick slightly until the appropriate bank angle is reached and then let the stick re-centre. No need for back stick to hold the nose-up - trim is applied automatically. The stick does take some getting used to though - there is no feel, other than centreing springs - it is just like a computer joystick. I found holding it with two fingers and my thumb worked well. Applying small movements and waiting to see what happened worked well. Large movements tended to lead to PIOs.
We then repositioned to a 10 mile final on the ILS and I did a manual landing, with auto throttle and flight director. I found it easy to follow the flight director (two green bars like ILS needles and a small white square which represents the aircraft) but when transitioning to outside scene, I had a tendency to over control. The landing was easy - power levers to Idle at the 100’ RA callout, a slight pitch-up to flare at 40’, a slight jolt and a satisfying main wheel rumble, lower the nose wheel and keep straight with the rudder pedals during the rapid deceleration (Autobrake 3).
I remember being surprised by the cockpit height at touchdown when I first saw a landing from the jumpseat in a 777, but I had no problem judging the flare in the A380, mainly due to the height callouts.
We then moved to Hong Kong, where I did a couple of landings (one with an engine failure on approach) and a takeoff, with cloud base at about 1000’ and a crosswind. I’m not sure of the wind velocity, but there was about a 10 degree crab angle. I can’t remember if I kicked off the drift in the flare - I may have done so automatically out of habit, but again the landings were uneventful. One of the landings was done using the HUD, which due to lack of experience, I found more difficult than using the conventional instrument displays.
My instructor then took us up to FL300 and I then tried flying in Direct Law, without auto throttle. This is where all the protections are not available and there is no autopilot or auto-trim available. Reversion to Direct Law would only happen in reality if there were multiple hydraulic or computer failures, but the sim has a special Direct Law demo mode, that avoids having to fail systems and then have ECAM messages to deal with. I found the Direct Law fairly straight-forward, although a little bit more challenging than Normal Law, since the controls are now basically like a conventional aircraft, but again with no force-feedback. Unlike the A330, which has a conventional trim-wheel adjacent to the power levers, manual trimming in the A380 is done with two rocker switches in an inconvenient location at the back of the centre pedestal. In the short time I was trying this, I never did get the aircraft trimmed properly and there were some significant height variations. In the end, I just flew out-of-trim and lived with the stick centreing forces, which were not too bad.
I also flew with airspeed sensor failure. The speed tape on the left of the horizon is replaced with a very straightforward AOA display, with red bars top and bottom and a green zone, and Fast or Slow superimposed as appropriate.
I then did another ILS and landing in Direct Law. Again no problem, apart from the same tendency to over control when flying visually below 200’. Unfortunately at this point, the motion system had been deactivated due to some problem and it was difficult to tell if I had touched down or not, because of the cockpit height during the flare.
fantom, I didn't really notice any significant inertia effects in comparison to my 737 experience. However, I didn't do any aggressive manoeuvering and perhaps the inertia helped damp out my over-controlling near the ground. The only time I thought about the size of the aircraft was during some of the roll PIOs, when I had a vivid image of what they would look like from the ground!
At my request (thanks for the suggestion, FlightDetent), we then did a GPWS escape manoeuvre. While flying at 144 kts on the 07R ILS at Hong Kong, at about 2 miles from the threshold, I turned right and flew directly towards the 2000’ high ridge on Lantau Island. I found this very unnatural and difficult to do. Because we were in approach mode, the GPWS is much more tolerant of ground proximity than in cruise and it wasn’t until the forward view was filled with mountain side, that we got the “TERRAIN TERRAIN” warning followed almost immediately by “PULL-UP PULL-UP”. I pulled the stick back to the stop and applied TOGA thrust and suddenly there was nothing but sky outside and we were climbing out, with full-flaps and gear down, at 104 kts. :eek: I didn't note the rate of climb or the pitch attitude, but it was a very impressive performance.
One final landing and my hour was done. A wonderful experience and I came away very impressed with the simulator fidelity and the A380's performance. :D
Thanks to those who organized this for me. Perhaps I am now qualified to be Bernard Ziegler's concierge? ;)
PS Several times during the flight, I had a slight feeling of unease, which I couldn't quite pin point. It was only afterwards that I realized it was because I was "flying" without a fastened seat harness!
I’m a PPL with no large aircraft experience, but I used to have an IR and pre-2001, I had several jump seat rides on various commercial aircraft. I had previously flown a 737 NG simulator and was very keen to see how the Airbus differed from the Boeing.
In preparation for the flight, I downloaded and read the appropriate parts of the A330 Flight Crew Training Manual. Following a request for other appropriate information on the “Questions” forum, FlightDetent pointed me to the more useful (from my point of view) A330 Flight Deck and Systems Briefing for Pilots and fantom reminded me to be aware of the inertia of such a large aeroplane.
Yesterday morning, I had a call to say that the A330 was “AOG”, but they were hoping to have it fixed by today.
Then in the afternoon, I had a bad news/good news call. The A330 had not been fixed, but they had arranged a slot for me in an A380 sim! :ok:
So today was the day. The cockpit of the A380 is very similar to the A330 I had been studying, with the obvious difference of four power levers and lack of a manual trim wheel plus differences in instrument layout and controls, that were not relevant to the manual flying that I was going to do. The cockpit is smaller than I had expected for the size of the aircraft. I sat in the left seat and after adjusting the seat and armrest, was able to comfortably manipulate the sidestick and the rudder pedals. Normally, I don’t like flying with a stick in my left hand but this felt quite comfortable after a short while, mainly due to the forearm support provided by the armrest.
I did an initial takeoff from Doha, flying manually, but with auto throttle to handle the speed. It was very simple - brakes off, power levers to TOGA, keep straight with the rudder, rotate after the automatic V1 callout, positive ROC - gear up, power levers back to the CLB detent and flaps up in stages at the appropriate speeds. The visual display is very impressive and you very quickly forget you are looking at a synthetic world outside.
I then did some manoeuvring in Normal Law. Medium turns are very easy - deflect the stick slightly until the appropriate bank angle is reached and then let the stick re-centre. No need for back stick to hold the nose-up - trim is applied automatically. The stick does take some getting used to though - there is no feel, other than centreing springs - it is just like a computer joystick. I found holding it with two fingers and my thumb worked well. Applying small movements and waiting to see what happened worked well. Large movements tended to lead to PIOs.
We then repositioned to a 10 mile final on the ILS and I did a manual landing, with auto throttle and flight director. I found it easy to follow the flight director (two green bars like ILS needles and a small white square which represents the aircraft) but when transitioning to outside scene, I had a tendency to over control. The landing was easy - power levers to Idle at the 100’ RA callout, a slight pitch-up to flare at 40’, a slight jolt and a satisfying main wheel rumble, lower the nose wheel and keep straight with the rudder pedals during the rapid deceleration (Autobrake 3).
I remember being surprised by the cockpit height at touchdown when I first saw a landing from the jumpseat in a 777, but I had no problem judging the flare in the A380, mainly due to the height callouts.
We then moved to Hong Kong, where I did a couple of landings (one with an engine failure on approach) and a takeoff, with cloud base at about 1000’ and a crosswind. I’m not sure of the wind velocity, but there was about a 10 degree crab angle. I can’t remember if I kicked off the drift in the flare - I may have done so automatically out of habit, but again the landings were uneventful. One of the landings was done using the HUD, which due to lack of experience, I found more difficult than using the conventional instrument displays.
My instructor then took us up to FL300 and I then tried flying in Direct Law, without auto throttle. This is where all the protections are not available and there is no autopilot or auto-trim available. Reversion to Direct Law would only happen in reality if there were multiple hydraulic or computer failures, but the sim has a special Direct Law demo mode, that avoids having to fail systems and then have ECAM messages to deal with. I found the Direct Law fairly straight-forward, although a little bit more challenging than Normal Law, since the controls are now basically like a conventional aircraft, but again with no force-feedback. Unlike the A330, which has a conventional trim-wheel adjacent to the power levers, manual trimming in the A380 is done with two rocker switches in an inconvenient location at the back of the centre pedestal. In the short time I was trying this, I never did get the aircraft trimmed properly and there were some significant height variations. In the end, I just flew out-of-trim and lived with the stick centreing forces, which were not too bad.
I also flew with airspeed sensor failure. The speed tape on the left of the horizon is replaced with a very straightforward AOA display, with red bars top and bottom and a green zone, and Fast or Slow superimposed as appropriate.
I then did another ILS and landing in Direct Law. Again no problem, apart from the same tendency to over control when flying visually below 200’. Unfortunately at this point, the motion system had been deactivated due to some problem and it was difficult to tell if I had touched down or not, because of the cockpit height during the flare.
fantom, I didn't really notice any significant inertia effects in comparison to my 737 experience. However, I didn't do any aggressive manoeuvering and perhaps the inertia helped damp out my over-controlling near the ground. The only time I thought about the size of the aircraft was during some of the roll PIOs, when I had a vivid image of what they would look like from the ground!
At my request (thanks for the suggestion, FlightDetent), we then did a GPWS escape manoeuvre. While flying at 144 kts on the 07R ILS at Hong Kong, at about 2 miles from the threshold, I turned right and flew directly towards the 2000’ high ridge on Lantau Island. I found this very unnatural and difficult to do. Because we were in approach mode, the GPWS is much more tolerant of ground proximity than in cruise and it wasn’t until the forward view was filled with mountain side, that we got the “TERRAIN TERRAIN” warning followed almost immediately by “PULL-UP PULL-UP”. I pulled the stick back to the stop and applied TOGA thrust and suddenly there was nothing but sky outside and we were climbing out, with full-flaps and gear down, at 104 kts. :eek: I didn't note the rate of climb or the pitch attitude, but it was a very impressive performance.
One final landing and my hour was done. A wonderful experience and I came away very impressed with the simulator fidelity and the A380's performance. :D
Thanks to those who organized this for me. Perhaps I am now qualified to be Bernard Ziegler's concierge? ;)
PS Several times during the flight, I had a slight feeling of unease, which I couldn't quite pin point. It was only afterwards that I realized it was because I was "flying" without a fastened seat harness!