"Radio Altimeter Alive" call
PA.. sounded like that was said with feeling
Anyhow this could be fun ....any of the BA Airbus folks care to give the company specific answer? Actually they probably started typing chapter and verse a few hours ago but haven’t finished the reply yet...
Anyhow this could be fun ....any of the BA Airbus folks care to give the company specific answer? Actually they probably started typing chapter and verse a few hours ago but haven’t finished the reply yet...
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Any call auto or by respective crew member has to be acknowledged otherwise there's no way of knowing whether it was herd. Also it guards against possibility of crew incapacitation. Some response as "checked" is appropriate.
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By FCOM, it’s a standard callout for the PF to call “checked” when the RA is alive. I’m not a big fan of “too many call outs” in the cockpit but this one it’s quite important especially if you are doing LVO.
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BA - we call “position check” and the PM responds with the procedure, distance, altitude and baro ref. Part of the approach brief should include where you expect the RA to go off so it shouldn’t be a surprise when it does.
Champ
Champ
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The BA SOP might be 'over the top' in that it is spoken out loud. However, it is quite obvious from flying with numerous cadets in another airline, that when the RA chirped up at 2500' their response had no SA awareness whatsoever. I used to encourage them checking it against baro and confirming to themselves it made sense. It was not taught/mentioned as an airmanship SOP; the response was a piece of parrot mouth music to satisfy SOP's. Going into AGP RW14 and cutting the corner to the LOC it was not unusual to have the RA alive at 30nm from touchdown. Descending IMC that needs some understanding, good SA and confident awareness of where you are. However, there did not seem any curiosity that this triggered so far from the runway; just the parrot response. I'm sure there are many more airports where you are descending on procedures below MSA & IMC where the RA will be triggered early.
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In the 737-200 when the RA came alive it triggered a an amber warning light directly in front of the captain. In those days we wound up the RA selector to full scale (2500 ft) during the cruise check and left it there.
Descending into Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands South Pacific) at night we would receive a momentary alert from the RA light and the numbers would flash down for a second or two as we passed over the top of a 7000 ft mountain 15 miles from Henderson Field of WW2 fame. Thus it was a poor man's GPWS and excellent situational awareness.
Descending into Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands South Pacific) at night we would receive a momentary alert from the RA light and the numbers would flash down for a second or two as we passed over the top of a 7000 ft mountain 15 miles from Henderson Field of WW2 fame. Thus it was a poor man's GPWS and excellent situational awareness.
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I’ve heard the “position check” call is being changed in the not too distant future but I don’t have any information on what it might change to. Whilst many ridicule BA, the SOP is in place for precisely the reason RAT5 mentioned. It’s a final check to make sure both crew members are happy with where the aircraft is and it gives time to correct the flight path if an error is found. For most ILS’s, it’s also a good point to check that the glideslope looks sensible and you haven’t false-captured it.
Champ
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