A320 t/o flaps

[Steven Ross]

Hi. I'm a non pilot / frequent flier aviation geek.
Following a last minute flight change the other night I found myself in 21A on a BA A320 departing LGW-GLA. Meant I was just behind the wing and I noticed flaps extended to 30 for take-off. Never seen them so extended before on t/o. It was a heavy flight, but is that not quite uncommon ?

It was a full length departure on 08R, calm clear weather about 20 degrees c.

Retracted to 20 about 5 seconds after rotation and then to position 10 after wheels up about 10 seconds later. Was a shallow but smooth climb.

[Smokey Lomcevak]

Hi Steven,

Your crew may well have been planning to depart from an intersection, probably Golf. ATC like to have access to a range of aircraft departing in different directions, so crews will often offer an intersection departure when Northbound in case the holds at the full length are full of Southbound aircraft. The reduced Take off distance available may well necessitate the use of conf2 or 3.

If the crew subsequently depart from the full length, they can either switch to the related performance, which may involve flap changes and some heads down FMGC programming; or use the previously loaded figures on the basis that they were for a shorter TORA, TODA and ASDA. Many will choose the second option in order to avoid the threat of making an error. As it happens, perf figures for 08R are quite often based on conf3 in a 320.

HTH

Smokey

[Angels 99]

Multiple valid possible reasons for departing Conf 3, suffice to say it's quite normal, especially with the software that BA uses for perf calculations (very briefly it prioritises config for highest achievable TO weight rather than lowest flap setting for actual takeoff weight.

In terms of the retraction schedule, I'm reluctant to tell you that what you've described didn't happen, however if they did anything in terms of flap retraction before thrust reduction (which probably happened circa 25 secs after rotation) then they're not operating to any kind of normal SOP and the company would rapidly have them in 'for a word'. I'm not sure exactly what you saw but if it wasn't in the sequence of Gear Up, 25ish secs later thrust reduction followed by a retraction for Conf 3 to Conf 1 followed a little later by Conf 1 to Conf 0 then I'd be amazed.

[OhNoCB]

Although I don't fly the 320 I am also confused by the order of events witnessed being described as Rotate > Flap retract > Gear up > Flap retract. On any aircraft I have flown that would be very very very abnormal.

[seen_the_box]

You are mistaken in your recollection. There is no way that the flaps would have been retracted in the sequence you've described. Flaps are not retracted until acceleration altitude, which for BA on the Airbus is most likely 1000-1500' AAL, assuming NADP2 for noise abatement at Gatwick.

[Wageslave]

And with the greatest of respect one must assume that in the light of this extraordinary "mis-recollectoin" the rest of the "facts" described should probably be viewed with a similar level of scepticism.
The flap retraction sequence as described would result in the immediate grounding of the crew involved followed by severe disciplinary action it is so extreme. Sorry, there's a major memory recall error here at very best.