Posted on 04/24/2006 10:17:12 AM PDT by Yo-Yo
Rebooting Your Airbus (After All The Screens Go Dark)
April 24, 2006
By Russ Niles,
Newswriter, Editor
Cures aside, pilots of Airbus A320-series airliners are getting new guidance on what to do if the screens on their electronically biased aircraft go blank. "Checklists will be streamlined so re-booting of power is quicker," an Airbus spokesman told the London Daily Mirror after Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch released a report on an incident aboard a British Airways A319 last October. The plane was carrying 76 passengers to Budapest from London when most of the electronic displays went blank. The crew was able to bring everything back online in 90 seconds and the passengers were blissfully unaware of the glitch.
The incident brought to light five similar instances on Airbuses. In the October incident, the plane was over southern England when the crew heard an audible "clunk." Five of six screens went out, the intercom and radio failed, the autopilot and autothrottles disengaged and most of the cockpit lights went out. The captain took over the controls and flew night VFR (fortunately it was a clear night) while he and the first officer sorted out the power failure. The flying pilot's task was further complicated by the fact that the backup analog instruments aren't lit. The AAIB has issued a series of safety recommendations but its final report isn't finished yet.
I know a few folks in the State Department myself and he is not the norm.
I am glad that Embraer are making good planes now and giving Boeing and Airbus a run on the 100-120 seat planes these days, just wish McDonnell, Shorts, Fokker, Lockheed were around, and that we had more stuff from Canadair, LET, CASA, and Bombardier.
When all else fails, low tech rules, especially when you life depends on it.
At least they could light up their analogs with a flashlight.
No, I'm helping prove Linux pushers will do just about anything but admit problems with it. Foreign planes eat up with endless software problems because they picked Linux? Blame Windows!
"Since I was flying, I had to hold the flashlight in my mouth to see the instruments"
Way back in the dark ages when I was taking my night training for my private my instructor taught me a lesson, get a 2 cell aaa flashlight! I had a 2 cell D flashlight and almost choked holding it in my mouth.
I also years later had the battery short out internally and burn up coming from El Paso to Burbank over El Centro and before I lost all power got a clearance to land at Burbank. The small flashlight came real handy.
besides, thompson CSF has a money back guarantee on their software -- good for 2 million miles or until the tail falls off, whichever comes first.
"Another example of why "statistics" can lie."
As I was taught in statistics, it is a course in how to lie with figures and how to make figures lie.
Frenchy Airbus under strike for overwork?
LOL!
Control, open apple, reset.
I've worked on many aircraft that were in worse condition than the owners cars. What always got me was a guy in a Mercedes that wanted to bitch about my fee.
Just turn everything off, wait 30 seconds, turn the master back on and wait for the welcome screens.
Simple, n'est ce pas?
/sarc
.
Uh,
I'm assuming you did not have a couple hundred passengers on your private airplane...kind of makes a difference.
Yes Virginia,
Airbus does suck.
...90 Seconds is a life time in a airplane out of control!
..." blissfully unaware of the glitch" ought to be the biggest and most irresponsible statement of the century!
Who made this statement?!...the French, must be, since this contraption is their only way to get noticed on the International level.
..."blissfully unaware" you ought to be kiddin'me!
LOLOL!!! I like that. :-)
It's closer to 20/1, plus the speed trade off.
Since virtually any airframe part can have hydraulic fluid in/on it, I don't trust any Airbus equipment with composite parts (probably all of them).
"The NTSB pointed out that with Flight 587, the entire tail assembly failed -- whereas the recent problems concern only the moveable rudder portion of the tail."
"...Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell said the company considers the matter resolved. "Flight 587 was the most investigated accident in the history of aviation and the NTSB did a very, very thorough job," McConnell said.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1620971/posts
Your hold time to speak to a technical assistant will be....23 minutes.
Uh, my dad, who flew for TWA for 35 years, and who taught me to fly, disagrees with you.
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