Attn: any A320 drivers?

[Si]

Hi,

I was watching that program on Discovery yesterday called Flight Deck, when the capt was going through the take off brief he said that 'flex set to 35 and flaps in position 3' what does the flex part mean, he also said it during the take off run. Is it linked to the N1 or N2 gauges on the ECAS?

Just out of interest thats all.

[Carnage Matey!]

The flex is the flex temperature, basically a measure of the derate on the take off thrust. You tell the aircraft how hot you want it to be outside and the engine provides what it thinks is the maximum thrust it can give you if its that hot, hence you get less than the maximum available thrust. You should get an indication of the target flex N1 on the engine display during the take off roll and you can compare this against the actual N1 on the gauges to determine whether the engines are providing the correct power.

[Si]

Cheers, matey, i totally understand now, thanks again!

[spoilers yellow]

To put it simply a Flex take off is a one where you use less than full engine power for departure.

This is done on non restricting runways and is done basically to increase engine life.

The trust delivered is directly related to the actualt airfield temperature which is often called N1 Ref the computer then calculates an artificial( higher) temperature which is used to calculate take off thrust N1Flex.

Hope this helps.