The A320 Podcast

There are 4 main recognised sections to the non-technical skills in aviation. - Situational Awareness, - Decision Making, - Leadership and workload management and - Crew Cooperation. This episode is about Crew Cooperation. Crew Cooperation requires the following categories of skills: - Encouragement of participation - Consideration of Others - Supporting of Others - Conflict Resolution The scenario of the week is a reflection on yourself. How do you think other crew members perceive you and your actions? Try and think of two situations you've been in where CRM skills were required, one were you feel you did well and one were you would do things differently if it happened again.

vionics Smoke - One smoke detector is fitted in the air extraction duct of the avionics ventilation system. When this detector senses smoke for longer than 5 seconds it signals the ECAM to display a warning, A single chine sounds The master caution lights on the glare shield light up The ECAM displays a caution The smoke light on the EMER ELEC PWR panel lights up, And The blower and extract fault lights illuminate on the ventilation panel. If the smoke is detected for longer than 5 minutes, the caution can be cleared but it remains latched and can be recalled. When on the ground a dual Flight Warning Computer reset will unlatch the condition. Each lavatory has a single smoke detector in each compartment and it is fitted in the extraction duct grille. When the detector finds smoke, it sends a signal to the CIDS which then transmits it to the FWC to produce an ECAM warning in the flight deck. The CIDS system generates an indication in the cabin to alert the crew. In each waste bin there is an automatic fire extinguishing system, these operate automatically when triggered by heat. There are no controls or indications for these extinguishers. The only way to check if they have discharged is by looking at the bottle pressure gauge. Cargo Compartments - Cavities in the cargo compartment ceiling panels each hold 2 smoke detectors. Each detector is linked to one of the 2 detection loops. The forward cargo compartment has one cavity and the aft cargo hold has 2 cavities. The CIDS receives signals from the detectors and transmits them to the ECAM which displays a warning in the cockpit. the CIDS system has dual channels. Smoke in 1 cavity activates the cargo smoke warning if; Both smoke detectors detect it, or one smoke detector detects it and the other is inoperative. If the aircraft is fitted with Cargo ventilation and the smoke warning is activated in either compartment the associated isolation lives automatically close and the extraction fan stops. A fire extinguisher system protects the FWD and AFT cargo compartments. One fire bottle supplies 3 nozzles, one in the FWD compartment and 2 in the AFT compartment. The bottle has 2 discharge heads, one for each compartment. In essence this means 2 pipes leave the fire bottle, one to the FWD and AFT compartment. The pipe in the AFT then splits to discharge in 2 different areas while the pipe in the FWD compartment can only discharge in 1 area. When the DISCHARGE pushbutton is pressed for either compartment that action ignites the corresponding squib on the fire bottle, which then discharges the agent into that compartment. If you fire the bottle in the AFT compartment and subsequently receive a warning for the FWD compartment the bottle will be empty. Only 1 compartment can be extinguished. When the bottle has discharged, the amber DISCHARGE light comes on. A summary of the QRH smoke paper checklist - As soon as smoke is perceived, call for the paper checklist and do the initial actions. - initiate a diversion and start descending to FL100 or MEA - Re-enter the paper checklist and work through though procedure while descending. - at anytime necessary, apply the REMOVAL OF SMOKE/FUMES checklist. - If the Fire become out of control, land asap.

Aircraft Fire Protection Systems for the Engines and APU provide Fire and overheat detection and extinguishing systems (as opposed to just fire or smoke detection like in other systems). The engines and the APU each have their own fire and overheat detection systems. These consist of: Two identical fire detection loops (A and B) which are mounted in parallel and a Fire Detection Unit or FDU. The fire detection loops have three sensing elements for each engine. They are found in the pylon nacelle, in the engine core and in the engine fan section There is one sensing element in the APU compartment. The Fire detection unit processes all the warnings and cautions originating in the sensing elements. There are 4 things that will cause a fire warning to appear: - a fire signal from both loop A and B, - a fire signal from one loop when the other is faulty, - a break in both loops occuring within 5 s of each other (flame effect), or - a test performed using the control panel. We get a loop-fault caution if : - one loop is faulty, - both loops are faulty or, the fire detection unit fails. Scenario of the week Imagine that as you taxi out you get the engine fire warning. Run through the ECAM we've just read out and then think about all the different things you need to consider. You've got ATC, Fire crews, cabin crew, passengers, the company and of course each other to sort out. How will you prioritise them all and what can you ask each group to help you make your decision?

This week is part two of our fuel episodes. If you didn't listen to last weeks episode then go back and download it before listening to this one. This week's scenario is one that is commonly given in the sim for assessments and checks. Fuel leak. So in the climb, before you've done a fuel check, you get the fuel page come up with the right wing tank fuel quantities pulsing. What checks do you make initially? Think about information gathering from all your resources. Then how are you going to manage the situation? This is a common scenario because it requires a range of skills to be demonstrated because theres checklists to do, possible single engine handling, faliure management, diversions and all under the time pressure caused by lack of fuel. Head over to our facebook page facebook.com/a320podcast and leave your thoughts on there.

Happy New Year! Well we've had a couple of weeks break, now we're straight back to it and this week is a good one. Fuel. Theres more to this system than you would imagine actually. Here is a summary of the fuel's journey from tanker to engine/APU Fuel enters the aircraft via the Refuel coupling or (hose connector) on the right wing. There is also the option to have one installed on the left wing if so desired. The amount of fuel required is selected on the Fuel panel on the right hand side of the fuselage. There is also the option to have a second panel fitted on the wing next to the hose connection. From the refuelling connection the fuel is carried along the length of both wings in what Airbus call a gallery. It basically a pipe with valves and outlets along it to deliver fuel to the correct places. Each wing has an inner tank, an outer tank and a surge tank. There is a centre tank in the fuselage. Fuel can be delivered into the outer tanks or the centre tank. Out of interest, the rough refuelling time at a standard pressure is about 17 min for wing tanks and 20 min for all tanks. From here, there's then three options for where the fuel can go. One of the two engines or, the APU. The fuel can be delivered in two ways. By fuel pumps or by gravity feeding. There are a total of six main fuel pumps, two in each of the inner tanks and two in the centre tank. Each pump supplies fuel to the engines. There's a crossfeed valve which allows fuel from either wing to feed either engine. Then as we reach the engine we have the low pressure fuel valve, which can stop the fuel flow "to the engine. It's closed by either the engine master switch, or the ENG FIRE PUSH pushbutton. Scenario of the week - What procedures do you have to follow if you are gravity feeding and where are they found? Thanks, and remember - Fly Safe

As its nearly Christmas we thought we do a more light-hearted episode. This week we discuss the film Sully. Scenario of the week - Departing your home base, you lose both engines at 2800ft. What will you do?

Hydraulic systems can suffer from a number of abnormal situations. Pump low pressure, reservoir overheat, Reservoir low air pressure and reservoir low level. The electric pumps on the blue and yellow systems can also overheat. All of these will lead to the ECAM requesting that you switch off the pump. If this occurs to the green or yellow systems the PTU, if it is available, will transfer power, not fluid, between the systems recovering the affected system. The blue system can not be powered by the PTU. If the PTU is not available or the procedure ask you to turn it off, the failed system will not be powered. This leads to a single system failure. In the case of a single system failure the aircraft will remain in normal law so all the associated protections are available. Certain flight controls will be affected based on which system has failed but ultimately Aileron, elevator and Rudder control surfaces will remain powered so controlling the aircraft will be conventional. Flaps and or slats will be slow depending on which of the systems has failed, we covered these in the original hydraulics podcast so it maybe worth having a listen again to refresh your memory. Certain spoilers will be unserviceable. Things start to become more interesting when 2 hydraulic systems fail. When this occurs the Autopilot will be lost so priority must be given to flying the aircraft and stabilising the flight path, the aircraft will also revert to alt law in 2 of the cases, so this, as usual, means direct law once the gear is extended. The ECAM will display LAND ASAP red, this is a timely reminder that you are now operating on a single hydraulic system, why have we lost 2? what happens if we lose the last system? We will cover all 3 cases of Dual hydraulics failure in some detail shortly but lets just broadly go over what you can expect for each case. If you remember these as a guide. G+B = Handling Problem G+Y = Braking Problem B+ Y = As the green system is available this is the least demanding of the 3 scenarios Airbus designed the summary pages to give us all of the information we need to help us during the cruise, approach, landing and if necessary the Go around. in the FCOM Pro-ABN-01- Use of Summaries section, more background information is provided. it states that the summaries are QRH procedures created to help the flight crew to perform actions. In ANY case the flight crew should apply the ECAM first, this includes the STATUS page. This is an important point, it is all too easy in a high workload situation to divert our attention to performance calculations and other tasks before completing the ECAM. The ECAM's for dual hydraulics are not actually that long and the status page will give you valuable information as to the state of the aircraft increasing your situational awareness.

Flight Control Laws The flight control law is basically the relationship between the pilot's input on the side stick and the resulting aircraft or flight control surface response. There are 3 flight control laws Normal Law, Alternate Law and Direct Law As a general rule, normal law deals with single failures of a system and alternate law deals with double failures. Within Normal Law we have three sub categories, Ground Mode Flight Mode Flare Mode Ground Mode was designed to make the aircraft behave more naturally when rotating at liftoff. The relationship between the side stick and the aircrafts response is much more like a conventional aircraft. For pitch control - there is a direct relationship between Side stick deflection and elevator deflection. Once the aircraft reaches 75kts the maximum elevator deflection is reduced from 30 degrees to 20 degrees. If we haven't manually set a trim position using the trim wheel then the THS or trimmable horizontal stabiliser will automatically set to 0. For lateral control - The side stick demands aileron and spoiler deflection as opposed to a roll rate but its not a direct relationship, the amount of deflection is dependant on the aircraft speed. As a extra bit of information for you, only spoilers 2 to 5 and the ailerons are used for roll. The rudders being a mechanical linkage aren't affected so you just have to remember that they become more sensitive the faster you go. There are no protections at all when in ground law. Flight Mode The aircraft will then start to blend smoothly from ground mode into flight law once the pitch attitude reaches 8 degrees. In roll this takes half a second and for pitch it takes five seconds. There's a good graphic in the FCOM with this information on. Its in Descriptions - Flight Controls - Flight control System - Normal Law - General once the aircraft has been airborne for more than 5 seconds we are then in flight mode. This is obviously the one we are exposed to 99% of the time we are operating. As we mentioned a minute ago, normal law keeps us within the aircraft envelope and prevents us from doing manoeuvres that could potentially endanger the flight. It also gives the aircraft certain characteristics when manually flying. In pitch the sidestick demands a load factor as opposed to an elevator deflection. So an input on the sidestick will give a pitch rate at low speed or a g-load at high speed. This is designed to give an aircraft response that the pilot would naturally expect. One of the first things you notice about the Airbus is the lack of trimming which is for me one of the best features. Therefore if there is no input on the stick the aircraft will maintain its flightpath even if the speed changes. In fact even if you change the thrust or the configuration, the aircraft will compensate for the pitching moments. This makes manual flying very easy and frees up lots of capacity. With Roll, Again, unlike a conventional aircraft, lateral inputs on the side stick don't demand aileron deflection directly. They demand a roll rate and full side stick deflection will demand 15 degrees per second. Just like with pitch, the aircraft will auto trim so the bank angle will be maintained when you let go of the stick up to 33 degrees, and will also automatically provide a pitch compensation and perform a coordinated turn using yaw. The maximum bank angle the aircraft will allow you to do is 67 degrees. Beyond 33 degrees, the aircraft won't auto trim and if the side stick is then released it will return back to 33 degrees. In addition to this, above the 33 degrees, spiral stability is introduced and pitch compensation isn't available. The reason they've written this into the software is because there is no reason to fly at such high bank angles for a prolonged period. Protections Angle of Attack - Autopilot out at Alpha prot, then from Alpha prot to alpha max side stick demands Alpha directly. Alpha floor trigger TOGA thrust and speed continues to decrease until we get back to Alpha max which the speed won't go below. Load Factor - +2.5G to -1G clean +2G to 0G in any config other than clean Pitch Attitude- -15 degrees all configs +30 degrees config 1, 2 and 3 +25 degrees config Full High Speed Protection- Autopilot out at VMO/MMO, master caution and overspeed ECAM at VMO/MMO +4 kts, then at VMO/MMO +6 kts, pitch trim is frozen, max bank angle is reduced and a nose up demand is triggered. Bank Angle - Max 67 degrees Reduced to 45 degrees in Alpha protection and 40 degrees in high speed protection Side stick pressure required to maintain bank angles greater than 33 degrees unless in high speed protection when its zero. Alternate Law is generally for situations where there has been a double failure of a system which results in either lack of redundancy or integrity of the protections found in normal law. Auto pilot and auto thrust are still available. You can get alternate law with protections and alternate law without protections. With protect

This system is closely linked to the Air Conditioning system which we discussed back in episode 2. If you havent listened to it already it may be worth going back and listening to that first. The main components. The system consists of: - Two Cabin Pressure Controllers (CPCs) - One Residual Pressure Control Unit (RPCU) (if fitted) - One outflow valve, with an actuator that incorporates three motors (two for automatic operation, one for manual operation) - One control panel - Two safety valves. To work out the schedule, the current CPC uses the landing elevation and the QNH we've entered into the perf page of the FMGC, and the pressure altitude from ADIRS. If FMGC data isn't available, the controller uses the captain BARO reference from the ADIRS and the LDG ELEV selection from the overhead panel. The system follows a schedule for each flight which consists of four general functions: - Ground function: It Fully opens the outflow valve on ground - Pre Pressurisation :During takeoff, it increases cabin pressure to avoid a surge in cabin pressure during rotation (we'll talk about whether this really ever happens later) - Pressurisation in flight :It Adjusts cabin altitude, and rate of change to provide passengers with a comfortable flight - Depressurisation :After touchdown, it gradually releases residual cabin overpressure before the ground function fully opens the outflow valve. Scenario of the Week You get a call from the Cabin, they are complaining of a loud noise coming from door 2L (at the back).

What is OEB48? Well basically it's an Operations Engineering Bulletin that was issued by Airbus to all operators to cover the possibility of all AoA probes becoming "blocked" which could then cause the aircraft to go into unwanted protections. FAC computes GW and sends it to the ELAC. FAC uses aerodynamic data to calculate and display characteristic speeds on the PFD ELAC computes activation of protections The reason αprot decreases with mach number is due to two things, compressibility effect and critical mach number. Above about Mach 0.6, Calibrated Air Speed and Equivalent Air Speed diverge due to compressibility effects, meaning CAS over-reads compared to EAS. Airbus and most other aircraft PFDs show CAS on the airspeed tape, so at higher Mach numbers the Vls, aProt and aMax displayed must increase to compensate for the growing difference between EAS and CAS. The other effect is caused by increasing the Mach number into the transonic range. This eventually causes small shockwaves to form on the wing, which grow in size as the flight Mach number and/or AOA increase. These shockwaves disturb the airflow behind them, reducing the lift of the wing compared to subsonic flight conditions for the same AOA. The relationship between CL and AOA are adjusted to compensate. The effect is the stall equivalent airspeed increases because the shockwaves cause CLmax to decrease. Finally, the shockwaves can also cause the wing to stall at a lower AOA, but this is all dealt with through reduced CLMax and thus higher stall speed. CAS Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibrated_airspeed EAS link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalent_airspeed Critical Mach Number link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mach_number Accident interim report for Lufthansa Accident http://www.bfu-web.de/EN/Publications/Interim_Reports/IR2014/I1_Report_14_6X014_A321_Pamplona.pdf?__blob=publicationFile www.A320podcast.com www.facebook.com/A320podcast

Every Summer when we both have our LOE simulator tests we will give you a run through of what we had and how we dealt with it. The events Matt had were, - ACP 2 failure - FWC 1&2 fault - FCU 1&2 fault The events Andy had were, - Auto thrust - ADR 1&2 - Direct law go around www.a320podcast.com/podcasts/summer16

This week we look at the Air Asia accident where the crew ended up loosing control of the aircraft at high altitude. We've saved you the effort of looking at the 200+ page report but if you wish to read it fully yourself then you can download it by going to the following link, http://www.aaiu.ie/node/873 The episode has the details of the event but below are some points to take away from this event. We can't prevent external factors like a dodgy solder joint or engineers not fixing an issue but we can minimise those effects on our flight and, as we've already mentioned, there are some fundamental rules which if the crew had followed this accident wouldn't have happened. follow SOPs and use standard phraseology Never do a reset thats not in the QRH unless specifically told to by engineers. Discuss issues between you and use a structure like DODAR or GRADE Improve our knowledge of the stall so we can recognise it and correct respond to it.

This week we take a look at the hydraulic systems we have on board and the best way to remember them. The basics - The A320 has 3 independent, hydraulic systems. Green, Blue and Yellow. Each system has its own hydraulic fluid reservoir and all three of these reservoirs are automatically pressurised by bleed air from engine 1. If the bleed pressure is too low from engine 1, the system will automatically take air from the cross bleed duct. The systems normally operate at around 3000psi A power transfer unit, commonly referred to as the PTU, enables the yellow system to pressurize the green system and vice versa. This allows the green system to be pressurised by the yellow system when no engines are running via the yellow electric pump. The power transfer unit comes into action automatically when the differential pressure between the green and the yellow systems is greater than 500 psi. The PTU does not transfer actual fluid between the green and yellow system, it can only transfer power. The green system controls BOTH slats and flaps, the blue controls slats and the yellow flaps. Reversers – green on the left controls Rev Eng 1 and yellow on the right controls Rev Eng 2. Flight controls – the Rudder is nice and easy to remember as all 3 systems can power the rudder. The elevator is similar again, the green system on the left controls the left elevator and the yellow system on the right controls the right elevator. The blue system can control both as a backup. The ailerons buck the trend a little, the green and blue systems can power both. Blue is primary on the left aileron and green is primary on the right. Ground Spoilers/Speed brake – This system uses all 3 hydraulic systems so at least 1 panel would be available in a dual hydraulics failure situation. There are 5 panels on each wing. Andy's way to remember - panel 1 and 5, the two outer panels are powered by the green system, then the next 2 in, 2 and 4, are powered by the yellow system leaving a solitary panel 3 to be powered by the blue system. Matt's way to remember (including ailerons) - Going from wing root to wing tip, GYBYG GB Yaw Damper – follows a similar pattern, Yaw damper 1 on the left green system and yaw damper 2 on the right yellow system. Landing gear is only powered by the green system. Normal braking is also on the green. Andy's way to remember is G for GOOD brakes. The alternate braking is on the Yellow system as well as the parking brake. Nose wheel steering is on the green system BUT some older aircraft had it on the yellow system so check your aircraft. Links & Resources Diagrams by Pierre-Michel Gasser - http://pmgasser.ch/ Matt's diagram for remembering the hydraulic systems

In this episode we take a look at air conditioning. Here's our summary of the flow from engine to outlet vent. On each side of the system, the bleed air leaves the engine and passes through the pack control valve and into the mixer unit. As the name suggests, it's then mixed with recirculated air from the cabin. The air leaves the mixer unit and before entering either the cabin or the cockpit, trim air valves add hot air to make it the correct temperature. This is hot bleed air which is tapped off just before it enters the packs. The Reference for this is FCOM-DSC-21-10 The scenario of the week Dispatch with AIR PACK 1 inop In the Cruise you get AIR Pack 2 OVHT Leave your comments below and make sure you visit www.A320podcast.com

Welcome to the first ever A320 Podcast. It's just a short version this week to introduce ourselves and give you an idea of what you can expect from us each week. Find lots more information at www.A320podcast.com We hope to help new and experienced pilots with studying and revising for type ratings, simulator checks or promotions. Tell as many colleagues and friends about us as possible so we can grow and create a worldwide community of great airbus pilots. Show Notes The Golden Rules for Pilots - FCTM_OP-010_Introduction 1. Fly, Navigate, Communicate Fly - this is referring to keeping the aircraft safely within its flight envelope and making sure the pitch, bank angle, heading, airspeed etc are all at the desired targets. This is achieved by the pilot flying controlling the aircraft through either use of the correct automation or by manual flying and pilot monitoring assisting and actively monitoring these parameters. Navigate - make sure you're currently in the right place and heading in the right place. There's no point flying an aircraft at the perfect speed, straight and level if you're pointing at the side of the mountain. This is partly already taken care of in the 'fly' or 'aviate' section because your desired altitude target should be based on being above MSA. Airbus refer to knowing the 4 'know where' statements. Know where you are… Know where you should be… Know where you should go… Know where the weather, terrain, and obstacles are. I personally would add one more to that last one which is airspace because you might not want to fly into busy airspace if they're not expecting you, and you may not want to fly out of controlled airspace and lose radar control. Communicate People often assume that this just means with air traffic control but as pilots we also need to communicate with each other, cabin crew, ground staff, engineers, passengers etc. We also use communication for important jobs such as task sharing or running checklists. Communication is so important and that's why we have our standard phraseology and standard call outs. 2. Use appropriate level of automation Its very important to make sure that we are always using the most appropriate automation available at any time. If used correctly the automatics can help us by drastically reducing our workload and freeing up our capacity which gives us more situational awareness Used incorrectly they can increase the workload and make a situation much worse. In Airbus' words we have to, "- Determine and select the appropriate level of automation that can include manual flight - Understand the operational effect of the selected level of automation Confirm that the aircraft reacts as expected." Basically, if the automatics aren't doing want you want, change the mode or take it out all together. Remember that all the automatics out is a level of automation and is a perfectly acceptable option. 3. Understand FMAs at all times The Airbus has several levels of automation and we all know that there are ways that these can easily bite us if we're not careful. The most important thing with the Airbus automatics is to ensure that what we select on the fcu or the mcdu is correctly displayed on the PFD or the ND. Understanding the different modes, how they interact and how they revert is very important and we will have a whole episode dedicated to this in the future. This leads on to golden rule number 4, 4. Take action if things do not go as expected If the aircraft isn't doing what we want, we have to either solve the situation with automatics or take them out all together. If at any point the aircraft doesn't follow the desired flight path or targets selected then the pilot flying should do whatever is appropriate. If the aircraft is in managed modes, change it to selected modes to demand exactly what you want. If the aircraft is in selected modes, change it to manual flying. The pilot monitoring should communicate with the pilot flying, challenge the actions of the pilot flying when necessary or take over if required. Just a short one this week, next week we'll be looking at Air Conditioning to ease us in to the technical subjects....