The Mystery of the Three Gongs

[HKPAX]

Any pilots out there to put my mind at rest as CX SLF?

SECOND gong after take off - cabin crew can get cracking on my gin & tonic.

THIRD gong - I can go take a leak.

But what does the FIRST gong signify??? (It sounds at just a handful of thousand feet while the a/c is too steeply pitched for anyone to be going walkabout in safety let alone comfort).

Thanks in anticipation!

HK Pax

[flyblue]

It depends on company procedures. In my company the first one is the signal for crew release. It might be when gear is retracted, or at 10.000 feet (procedures I know of, but there might be others).

[christep]

The first one comes much sooner than that - I guess at about 1000', but I'm not sure what it means (perhaps it is the "gear up" although quite why the cabin crew needs to know that I'm not sure)

But anyway, shouldn't we be asking this in the Fragrant Harbour forum?

[flyblue]

The first one comes much sooner than that

christep, you mean the first gong comes much sooner than the gear up after T/O? That would mean before the usual 50-100 ft at which the gear is retracted. You'd still be on the runway.Or maybe I didn't understand right?

why the cabin crew needs to know that I'm not sure

The gongs are signal for company procedures. It's the way the F/D tells us at which stage of the flight we are. Example, in my company the first gong will tell us we are at 10.000ft, which in our procedures means we are relased. But at different stages of flight, and with different use (2 or 3 gongs, HI or LOW chime or bot HI-LOW) mean different things (CCcalls, F/D calls, emergency calls, toilet smoke, toilet calls,etc...)
CC and F/D are synchronised during the different phases of flight, meaning that since we know eachother's procedures we will be aware more or less what's going on in the F/D (for CC) and in the cabin (for F/D). This is very important since we are working jointly on the same mission.

[Globaliser]

If the first one is much sooner after liftoff, it may be when the gear is locked up. It used to be that the no smoking sign would be automatically turned off when the gear was fully stowed, accompanied by a gong; ditto in reverse when the gear unlocked for extension just before landing. Maybe the system's still armed and active, only the no smoking sign remains on because it's overriden in accordance with current policies.

[christep]

Obviously I meant much sooner than 10,000ft (which is, I believe, the second gong on CX when the cabin are free to move around (when conditions are smooth at least)).

I suspect globaliser is right - at least in the timing of the first gong on CX, which seems to correspond to about when the gear would be fully stowed.

[flyblue]

Globaliser,
yes, the "safe to move around" used to be linked to the NS sign. Since it is always ON now, we have kept the signal for crew use only, and at 10.000 ft the sign goes off in the galleys only (they only hear the chime in the cabin), so we can be sure of its meaning.

[HKPAX]

Thanks one and all for solving the mystery - i.e. all likelihood is the first gong signals "landing gear up".

Which beings me to a related point: at time of crew release (second gong) the seat belts light flashes two or three times, and one can count on at one passenger to misinterpret this as the passenger release signal and head off to the toilet. Can't the flashing be suppressed?

Christep: your point that this should be in Fragrant Harbour forum is well noted, but contributions here are er um a bit less confrontational.

HKPAX

[Globaliser]

HKPAX: Which beings me to a related point: at time of crew release (second gong) the seat belts light flashes two or three times, and one can count on at one passenger to misinterpret this as the passenger release signal and head off to the toilet. Can't the flashing be suppressed?

Again, just as deduction from pax observation: The gong that's often used to release the crew sounds exactly like the gong when the seat belt sign is switched off or on. My guess is that that's exactly what the crew do for the crew release gong - they switch the seat belt sign off, then switch it on again.

Where that practice came from, I don't know, but again I would suspect that it's just one of those things that developed when it was discovered that there was no other easy way of giving the crew throughout the entire aircraft a quick and simple signal like that. So someone improvised, and it became standard practice.

[Bob Upndown]

HKPAX,

On Airbus's (330 & 340, can't say for sure on other types), the first gong will be confirming the gear is up. On approach, you will also hear a gong when the gear is down and locked.

After the VS24 incident in '97 (wasn't on it, but knew crew that was) I did spend time on my first few A340 flights afterwards listening for that 'down and locked' gong whilst holding my breath!!!

Cheers,
Bob