Easyjet captain PA and use of ldg lt
 

Hi everybody, differently from many other airlines where captains say the most different things and at the most different times , in ezy i have seen that they say quite the same things at the same times. A PA just after boarding dealing with flight time and always reminding to pay attention on the safety demo. Is easyjet captain PA standard and written in the sop ?
I have seen that during climb they turn off ldg lt just after flap retraction , in descent they turn ldg lt on either at gear down or flap 2 and in mad i saw about fl100 , few mins after seat belts sign on. Does anybody know what their sop tell about it ? Just a curiosity

On most flights of all airlines there is a PA after boarding about the flight time, weather at destination and please pay attention to the safety briefing etc. The way that an Ezyjet flight is flown will be in accordance with their training and checklists.

Thomson: Nose gear light on for taxi, landing lights on when cleared for take off. Nose gear light off on gear up, landing lights off at 10000.

Landing lights on again at 10000 in decent, nose gear light on when cleared to land.

This is fairly common in most UK airlines, Easy i suspect is similar.

Our PAs are on boarding, top of climb, top of decent. The content is up to the person.

Hope that helps.

There are standard PA's as in a PA book like the cabin crew have. However, like many cabin crew members, the PA's from the flight deck are usually ad-libbed which is perfectly fine aslong as relevant information is conveyed.

To clarify, I fly for EZY.

There are recommended PA's but you can add or remove things from them as long as you cover the safety elements, there is no SOP for PA's but training is the same across the board so you'll tend to hear roughly the same thing.

The landing lights turn off after flap retraction because they create drag and at high speeds there is no need to have them out during climbout.

The SOP for Landing lights on descent is only "can be turned on below 10000' but should be on by final approach". We do this in several ways, if we forget, lights come on after gear down by PNF action, if we don't forget we normally ask for them sometime before but close to localizer interception.

In some situations they come out to help us descend quicker, if you're left high, the lights add some drag that helps get down or slow down quicker. In Madrid or anywhere where airspace is busy and they do parallel approaches you turn them on earlier than normal to help be seen.

That's mostly it.

Reading this is worrying, to say the least!

Clearly "no need" while the rest of the world seem to think it is a good idea to be seen in the busier lower levels up to FL100, esp in London and other busy TMAs...And FL100 was always sop on the Boeing - whatever changed the industry-wide requirement for visibility. Safety over a miniscule amount of drag - no contest then.

I'm speechless! Using landinglights to assist descent! Whatever next? Open the doors? Stick your clipboard out of the wndow? What happened to the mistake handle if you've misjudged your approach planning (or had it misjudged for you)? As if half a square foot of landing lights is going to make any difference at all? Bejasus!

Yet more examples of accountant-led dogma being unquestioningly swallowed at the expense of common sense and airmanship.

Actually the drag landing lights create is equivalent to 4 kgs fuel per trip. Multiply that by 204 (the number of aircraft in the EZY fleet) and again by 8 (sectors per day) and again by 364 and you get a fuel saving of 2.4 million kgs per year, not a miniscule amount I think. The lights are of no use in cloud or during daytime during climb or descent, so why waste fuel using them :ugh:.

Makes me think of volvo who first introduced lights on with ignition,stating than even in day light,people see you better when your lights are on.
Save your fuel another way...i d say.

But now we have TCAS, a far more useful aid than lights in busy TMA's.

Well, Nightstop is clear that instruments are far more use than any other means for identifyying threats so we can all abandon our lookout while we bask in the self-righteous knowledge of saving a propaganda supplied figure of 4Kg of fuel per trip.
The company's rung the bell so Capt Pavlov obediently says sod airmanship, it saves fuel.

QED

Personally, I'd prefer to think through the matter...and act accordingly.
Nav lights off too? Cabin light to dim?If not why not?

One seems quite sure it is not.....:eek:

In italy an airline with A320 uses ldg lt at gear down and gear up. I think the old standard of FL100 is being replaced by many airlines.
Another question ezy's airbus are all enhanced ? Do you still do brake check as many airlines just to know if braking is ok or there is no need ?

Can someone explain what 'top of decent' means, or even top of descent!

A320 landing lights to increase rate of descent? Are you on crack or is it stronger than that?

As for the fuel saving argument; lights on are about the best warning to birds. A few kilos more vs possibly avoiding a bird strike? Try some airmanship.

Let's be a little realistic shall we, I think the line

achieves absolutely nothing. Those who wish to listen will, those who don't won't. But really gets me is the dreadful way the safety briefs are given. I watched (suffered?), with a few other pax (a very small minority) an EasyJet safety brief a few days ago. Well, I can understand why people don't listen. It was a bit pretentious, humourless and in parts, inaccurately described. Features, equipment and procedures were all unnecessarily described as "safety features fitted to this aircraft". It's time airlines (mine included) ditched this crap and replaced it with something sensible.

PM

Contrary to what some think, A318/9/20/21 Ldg Lights do cause drag, vibration and fuel burn - they retract when "Off".

When was the last mid-air avoided by Landing Lights? We are also exhorted to land with Flap 3 by Mgmt, to save a similar single digit Kgs of fuel/sector. Try adding 10K to your landing speed, higher nose attitude, low thrust on approach and see some genuine safety implications to save a few Kgs :=

You can criticise all you like, but as shown above, it is fairly common practice to turn them off fairly quickly / only put them on quite late. Not just by pilot choice, but airline / manufacturer SOP.

NoD

Airbus landing lights add between 100 - 200 fpm to RoD in my experience (4000 hrs on type).

Do you land flap3 only on long rwys or also medium lenght rwy flap3 is ok ?
After landing usually in some A320 airline ldg lt are put in off position and they are retracted only when taxi lights get off , in ezy too?