Position: Seven miles above Iowa
Ground speed: 626 mph (545 kts)
Destination: Dulles International
PAX onboard: 110
It is one of those nights; all is well in Captain Dave's world. The Electric Jet ascended to 37,000 feet in 23 minutes where we will stay until we burn off enough fuel to step up to 39,000 feet. We are flying in absolutely smooth conditions, even though our little slice of atmosphere is moving east at 105 mph. Amazing! Overhead, the Milky Way is bright and clear. There are so many stars that it is, well, indescribable. There are no adjectives...
My co-pilot, though, is not having such a good night. He suffers from captainitis, the rare disease that I see no more than once a year, sometimes less. This is day number three of a four day trip and we have already had a meeting of the minds with the Pilot Operations manual as the main subject. On day number one, I caught him pressurizing the hydraulic system (on the ground) to charge the brakes without clearing the area. Doing this can lead to death and destruction because it pressurizes the flight controls, maybe the thrust reversers, and possibly the nose wheel steering. It so states in the Pilot Ops manual with large, bold print: WARNING!
I did not say anything, letting it go as a temporary brain vapor lock. I certainly suffer from this malady on a daily basis. On the second day, though, I could see his right hand hovering over his joy stick as I was preparing to land the aircraft. It was as if he were preparing to take over the controls in a last second attempt to save the aircraft. Doing this without alerting the flying pilot ahead of time can cause death and destruction because of dual inputs into Fi-Fi's flight control computers (definitely not a good thing). It so states in the Pilot Ops manual with large, bold print: WARNING!
Once we shut down at the gate, I closed the flight deck door, removed my Pilot Ops manual from my pilot bag and said, "We need to talk over a couple of things."
That was yesterday. The conversation has been only operational stuff, like checklists and required call outs, after that. Oh well, this place, aloft under the stars, should be quiet. There is too much to see to talk.
Life on the Line continues... Quietly.
21 comments:
Hi, and thanks Dave for the excellent blog!
Just as a minor comment to your post, at my airline it is an SOP that PNF is ready to take controls anytime when PF is flying manually - that is, mostly at takeoff and final phases of landing. At least I (as a copilot) keep my hand on the stick and feet on pedals during those phases.
Of course things vary between airlines, but just to point out a difference here.
Junior 320 driver
My instructor on my first Airbus check out, added "correction" at the same time I did during a wind-shear encounter at the landing threshold. Needless to say the resulting roller-coaster ride was a little disconcerting until he realized what he was doing and stopped, leaving me to land the aircraft. He apologized afterward.
"Following through" with your colleague to ensure they are correcting for a sudden loss of altitude in the flare just doesn't work the same on the magic bus where the two joysticks are algebraically summed*!
Good thing you brought this to your FO's attention before he caused an accident that would stay on your record.
Lovely shot of the stars too, btw!
(*Makes me wonder why Airbus programmed it that way... Couldn't they as easily program it so that the airplane responds to the greater of the two inputs? Then at least the aircraft wouldn't over-react so violently...? I suppose it would take an engineer to explain it and then I couldn't understand it anyway ;-)
anonymous 926- Yes, so are we, i.e., ready to take over in case of non-responsiveness or mechanical failure, not because the co-pilot thinks he can do a better job.
aluwings- thanks, but I did not take the photo. Lifted off the net...
aluwings footnote is one of the things I've always wondered about the airbus design philosophy. haptic feedback in the primary flight controls in force and position seems like an obviously beneficial bit of design for human operated devices like aircraft.
in fact, large aircraft are often cited as one of the early haptic teleoperated systems with their servo controls.
I suspect the flight control surface side of FBW became practical and attractive before effective and reliable force/position feedback for something like a joystick, and perhaps the momentum of time keeps this "different" behavior of the control system around. It seems like you could have your cake and eat it too, controlling rates rather than directly controlling surfaces while still having force/position feedback.
Of course I could be totally and utterly wrong, and I've never flown one of those beautiful aircraft. Just rambling really.
Thanks for the post. I have been awaiting the next installment with baited breath. Keep 'em flying!
It's best to catch mistakes while they're still young; before bad habits turn into accidents.
Dave,
Great post! I really like your writing style.
Uhm.......
This is totally off topic, but I have a question which have been haunting me for the last month or so... What ever happened to Captain Duckie? :-)
Hey good post! I just hopped on the bandwagon for your blog, so here comes a newbie question (get ready)...
What do you fly? (aircraft) and who for? (airline)
Dave,
Sounds like the "anti-authority" hazardous attitude from CRM training . . .
Hope it all worked out OK. Those issues can make for a long trip.
Glad you caught some fishy stuff happening in the cockpit and addressed it.
Hi Dave,
actually captainitis as I learned it describes just the other way round - when a crewmember does not take action when his captain makes an obvious error.
"Captainitis [...] The error gets its name from the sometimes-deadly type of passivity exhibited by crew members of multipiloted aircraft when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision. Accident investigators have repeatedly registered disastrous instances when even an obvious error made by a captain was not corrected by other crew members." (found at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4318.html ).
Just my 2ct of captainitis ;))
Cheers from the main cabine
Georg
Wow, could you pick a tighter/smaller corner to be stuck in with a feuding partner? That can't be easy at all. Thanks for sticking to your guns and keeping us safe up there, Dave.
I wonder if that dude has a blog, and what he's saying about all of this right now....?
georg- yeah, I am well aware of that phenom. It is true that most accidents have happened with the captain at the controls.
Dave, based on reading your blog I feel safe in thinking that the review was gentle informative and will server him well in the future. Even if he's sulking like my four year old...
I like your blog!! Therefore I allowed myself to put in on my bloglist at:
http://prechiblogtwo.blogspot.com/
Keep on flying and writing about it.
Best regards from Switzerland.
Peter
Hmmmm.....!
Interesting, the outfit I fly the A320 Family aircraft for, requires the non flying pilot to be ready to take over controls if and whenever necessary, whilst the aircraft is being flown manually. Most of my First Officers do this by having their right hand on the side stick (that's also where they push the button to make the radio transmissions). When I'm the non flying pilot, I have my hand hovering an inch or so away from the side stick with my thumb poised to hit the red take-over push button if neccesary. I do this to make sure I don't inadvertantly make any inputs and to make sure I hit the take-over push button switch beforehand. To those of you unfamiliar with this type of aircraft, if you want to take over the controls, you hit the take-over push button and you have sole control of the aircraft and a synthetic voice will announce "priority left/right" depending on which sidestick the button was pushed. If the other pilot fiddles with the side stick whilst you are flying, an arrow appears on the glareshield and a synthetic voice announces "dual input". This usually means the perpetrator has to pick up the bar check on the layover!
In my nearly thirteen years as commander on this type, I can recall all but three instances where I took control of the aircraft (in all cases on landing with inexperienced first officers). I cannot recall a single incedent of anyone having fiddled with the controls when I was flying, but I am glad that somebody is waiting to do so should I screw up.
Keep up the blog
mounz
mounz- you ever fly with a guy who thinks he knows more than you and doesn't mind telling you? This guy fit that description to a "T" and was constantly moving his right hand for the stick. That is not going to work in my flight deck. Being mentally prepared to take over if and when the captain medicals out is totally different than a bad case of captainitis.
Aha! - I see what you're getting at - yeah, I guess we have a couple of those kinds of guys flying for my outfit too.
I guess it's the case of the Alpha wolf having to reassert his standing in the pack. As uncomfortable as it is, I too have had to have the occasional "between you me and the lamp post discussion" in the cockpit with the door closed. At the end of the day you can only have one guy calling the shots and it has to be the captain.
Some guys just don't have the diplomatic finesse to work in the cockpit. As you and I know, they always occupy the seat that you're not sitting in. When you get your command, they move to the right seat. I find the interpersonal aspect of the job to be the most challenging.
We have the ECAM, checklists and procedures to deal with what most people deem to be the most challenging part of flying. In my opinion this does not come close to the challenge of dealing with difficult crew members or difficult/unruly passengers. I feel for you as I know that this is baggage that you usually take home with you and does not go away like the completed
ECAM abnormal procedure.
Keep up the good spirits and the blog!
Mounz
A real nice episode, well described. I'm punter from England. Not a flyer. Airfix kits and a 23 year career as a ground engineer on airfield nav aids in the RAF brought me to your door. I'm a Probation Officer now !
I saw a TV programme recently that showed good relations between number one and number two are a "good" thing. Who's responsibility is it to keep it groovy ?
CF
A former Swissair A320 captain related to me a story that suggests concern over an FO's hand at the ready may be misplaced.
Seems the controller on the left side had been through maintenance. First flight following... a crosswind correction by the captain after rotation required some right bank. The right input correction seemed to increase the problem. More correction - worse bank. The pilot not flying immediately took control and righted the airplane - just prior to a wingtip smacking the ground.
Apparently, connectors for left and right translation were not keyed, so the handcontroller did the opposite of what was expected.
In the 320, from what I was told, only a single controller at a time has command. A buttonpress from either side grabs authority from the other.
Perhaps I forgot some of the details on this - it was years ago.
Comments?
mark- that was a German A320. Maintenance had reversed the captain's flight control computers, therefore stick inputs were also reversed. The FO's stick was hooked up correctly and he saved the aircraft from a fiery crash.
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