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The SHOW: Airlines still a "good gig"??

Treetop Flyer

Treetop Flyer

Well-Known Member
pilot
fc2spyguy said:
One thing I wish airliners had were foot talk switches. For the old people here think of the old style high beams switch on the floor. The helicopter had two of them. One was for ics, the other was for radio. I could talk in/out without the use of my hands. It seems like such an easy thing, yet I’ve never even heard of it on an airplane.
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Some king airs have that. The UC-12M’s I flew had them but not the W’s
 
HAL Pilot

HAL Pilot

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
SlickAg said:
Not exactly. The NG and the MAX have both speed and altitude intervention. I think the NGs were built for it but you had to pay for it; on some of ours the button is covered up.

So if you’re on a STAR in VNAV Path and ATC gives you a new speed, you hit the button, throw in the speed, and you go into VNAV Speed. No legs page, no descent page. You can immediately put in the speed, and then go mess with the box to put the new assigned speed into the legs page or descent page as necessary, and then go close the speed intervene window, and it will remain in VNAV Speed until it recaptures the Path.

Altitude intervene is an easy way to recruise to a new altitude or double clicking it to delete an altitude restriction in the box.

Anecdotally, the handful of times I flew the MAX, if you have a tailwind it has a very difficult time maintaining the path and if you get a late descent for whatever reason it doesn’t catch up very well at wall. Lots of level change and V/S on the STAR, asking ATC for altitude relief, and we hit the bottom altitude maybe a mile prior. Other than that, very fun to hand fly, and the PTT button on the glare shield, 756 style, was great, as was the second cup holder.

View attachment 27479
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767 Speed intervention was to turn your speed dial and pull it. It put you into VNAV Speed. No button. Altitude intervention was to turn the altitude knob and pull it.

To stay in Path instead of using speed intervention we started setting the speed in the FMS instead. I forget what the page was called. Then we'd go change the legs page if needed. The only time we ever used speed intervention (after Hawaiian's "Boeing" intervention and retraining) was when VNAV was in approach logic. There were 3 ways to tell when this happened but I forget what they were. It didn't happen until right before the FAP. It took about a year before everyone got into using the FMS for speed changes instead of using speed intervention. Up until then, everyone bitched about how VNAV wouldn't stay in Path and how it didn't work well. After, we all started trusting VNAV and appreciating it.
 
HAL Pilot

HAL Pilot

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
fc2spyguy said:
One thing I wish airliners had were foot talk switches. For the old people here think of the old style high beams switch on the floor. The helicopter had two of them. One was for ics, the other was for radio. I could talk in/out without the use of my hands. It seems like such an easy thing, yet I’ve never even heard of it on an airplane.
Click to expand...
Around 2002 or 2003, I was jumpseating in a SWA -200 cockpit. The plane was a former Air Force plane and had a knee knocker mic switch running up the left side of the control column.

We were at the gate and I was sitting on jumpseat with the cockpit door open. The Captain had a headset on and did his welcome aboard PA using the boom mic. Right after the FA starts his PA in a really lispy voice. "Hi, we have 3 flight attendants, I'm Mike and I'll be up front, Tina will be in the middle and Jerry will serve you in the rear..." The Captain turns towards me chuckling and says "Did that f..g say he's going to do them in the ass???" When he turned, his knee hit the knee knocker and his question went over the PA for all to hear. He got a shocked looked and said "That went over the PA! Quick shut the door!" (which also went over the PA). I shut the door to roaring laughter from the cabin right as the extremely pissed FA was turning to come into the cockpit. The was loud knocking on the door with shouting "Open this door now!" The FO and I looked at the Captain with "what now" looks and the Captain said, ignore him. The Captain made another PA saying to shut the cabin doors and prepare for pushback and for some reason, the FA just went back to work without further drama. In flight the FO asked the Captain what he was going to do after we landed. Captain said he was just going to ignore it and refuse to talk to the FA about it. If the FA wanted to make a stink he could go to the CP. Worse case he retired 6 months early. Since he was one of the original 100 or so SWA pilots he had millions in stock he couldn't touch until he retired. He just be filthy rich 6 months earlier than planned. I've always wondered what happened.

But I sure lost any desire to have a knee knocker or floor mic switch.
 
scoolbubba

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
picklesuit said:
Is it weird I just revert to Level Change and grab the Speed Brake if I get above path?

Lazy, but effective...
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Nah. Dropping to a lower level of automation works really well when you can't get the highest level of automation to do what you want. Get back on path, punch VNAV back on, and go back to your coffee.
 
ea6bflyr

ea6bflyr

Working Class Bum
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
SynixMan said:
Meanwhile, bipartisan legislation (imagine that!) introduced to strengthen FAA oversight, especially of things that can "alter a plane’s flight path without input from a pilot"

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/business/faa-boeing-737-max-house.html
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That's great for the USA, but who is looking out for the international aviation community writ large?

ICAO only provides recommendations and is not regulatory.

European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and China's CAA are equivalent to FAA, but I don't know of any international CAA.

Anyone know of an international regulatory body?
 
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