Thrust lever on take off

[herman the crab]

So the caveat - I fly things with rotors!

At what point would the Capt and/or FO take their hands off the thrust levers during take off? Also is the requirement not for both to have a hand on the levers? Is this company/type specific?

Reason for asking is I watched a streaming TV show where only the Captain had his hand on the lever and then took it off when they reached V1. I know that he's not going to have to, or shouldn't retard them after V1 but is that normal? Does it depend on the V2 speed?

This was the A380, if that makes a difference.

HTC

[Station_Calling]

Where I work, PF advances the thrust levers, then when thrust is set, the Captain takes over. At V1 the Captain removes his hands until safely in the air and at V2 + 15 - 25 when PF should put their hands back on them.

The reasons for this are that in the event of a reject the Captain automatically takes control so there is less time having to swap hands on the thrust levers, and in the event of a failure after V1, the temptation to close the thrust levers is removed as hands are no longer on them.

That's just where I work, and other operators will be different.

SC.

[Tu.114]

Here, it is about the same. The Captain will set T/O power and keep his hands on the levers during the takeoff run, regardless of who is PF or PM. The reasoning for this is that in my company only the Captain is allowed to call a rejected takeoff; the F/O is only to call out the malfunction he noticed and leave the decision to the Captain.

Once the aircraft is accelerating, the two possibilities are:

a. a normal takeoff. In this case, the Captain will remove his hands from the power levers at V1 so that he does not inadvertently pull them back after the decision to continue has been made. Climb power will then be set by the PM. Thereafter, the power levers are operated by the PF until after touchdown, when the Captain will resume control for taxiing.

b. An aborted takeoff. The callout "Stop" instantly means a transfer of control to the Captain, who will then perform the required actions to stop the aircraft expeditiously. Generally, this involves closing the throttles, applying maximum braking and using an appropriate amount of reverse. When the aircraft has come to a standstill, the parking brake is typically set, some communication with the cabin takes place (so they can see the flight crew is still there), followed by decision making about the best further course of action.

There may be companies around in which either pilot may call or execute a rejected takeoff. In those companies, work distribution and the handling of the power levers may well be different.

[wiggy]

As has been said it is one of those "depends who you fly for" answers.

We have the supposed advantage of auto throttle and the now infamous TOGA mode, so there should be no need to manually set take-off power. Captain /FO doesn't enter into the equation - only the "pilot flying" handles thrust levers for a normal takeoff, and hand remains on the thrust levers until V1 is reached, at which point it is removed to reduce the chances of an errant reject above V1 (I'm describing how we do it on a Boeing but it sounds much like how it is seen to be done on the A380 video mentioned in the OP).

The only time the "pilot monitoring" would handle the levers would be selecting appropriate reverse during a rejected take-off.

[herman the crab]

Thanks all. Removing the hand [after V1] to prevent the inadvertent reject make total sense now.

HTC