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- Aerodynamics & performance
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- A Slippery Business
- It is well known that contamination on the runway may be a contributing factor to a runway excursion. In Sweden, known for warm and dry summers, the contamination mostly consists of snow and ice in the winter...
- Blended Winglets
- Southwest engineer gives operator perspective on blended winglet.
- Blended Winglets For Improved Performance
- Blended winglets on the Boeing Business Jet and the B737-800 commercial airplane offer operational benefits to customers. Besides giving the airplanes a distinctive appearance, the winglets create more efficient flight characteristics in cruise and during takeoff and climbout, which translate into additional range with the same fuel and payload.
- Center Of Gravity Limitations
- This Boeing document will help you to understand better the Center Of Gravity Limitations.
- Chilling Result Of Cold Temperatures On Baro Altimeters
- Barometric altimeters on modern aircraft with digital Air Data Computers are very accurate most of the time and we rely on these altimeters in every aspect of today’s air travel. We diligently set the local altimeter settings prior to each takeoff and each approach but we do not routinely make any corrections for non-standard temperatures. This FSF document explains the chilling result of cold temperatures on barometric altimeters.
- Contaminated and slippery runways
- This document will help you to increase your knowledge in a better understanding of contaminated and slippery runways
- Continuous Descent Arrivals
- A UPS captain explains the operational aspects of CDAs or Continuous Descent Arrivals.
- Cost Index Savings
- A perspective to get started with dignified Cost Index Values...
- De Icing and Anti Icing fluids
- This Boeing document is an excellent briefing on deicing/anti-icing fluids. A must to know...
- Derated Climb Performance
- This Rolls Royce document answers to frequent asked questions on Derated Climb Performance:
- Determination Of Dispatch Takeoff Weight
- The determination of Dispatch Takeoff Weight seems to be quite easy: start with the empty weight of the airplane and add the weight. But is it always that straightforward? Is everything actually wihed prior to the flight? How is the airplane empty weight determined? This Boeing document is a very well done brochure.
- Effect Of Zero Fuel Weight On Aircraft Operations
- The Effect of ZFW / ZFWCG on Airbus Operations.
- Enhanced Reduced Thrust At Takeoff
- Airbus presents New Derated and Flexible Takeoff Thrust for up to 40% thrust reduction.
- Erroneous Takeoff Speeds
- Operators have reported the use of excessively low takeoff reference speeds that have resulted in tail strike, high-speed rejected takeoffs (RTO), and other instances of degraded performance. These incidents were caused by a variety of human errors that typically resulted from using an erroneously low value for gross weight or an incorrect flap reference setting when determining takeoff speeds. This document is published by Boeing and it is well illustrated.
- Exceeding Tire Speed During Takeoff
- Airplane tires are designed to withstand a wide range of operating conditions, including carrying very high loads and operating at very high speeds. It is common for a jet airplane tire to carry loads as heavy as 60,000 pounds while operating at ground speeds up to 235 miles per hour. To accommodate these operational conditions, each tire has specific load and speed ratings. Tires are carefully designed and tested to withstand operation up to, but not necessarily beyond, these ratings.
- Flex and Derate Takeoff and Climb
- Flex/Derate, Engine bump and derated climb specific to Airbus aircraft.
- For a Better Understanding of Aircraft Braking Coefficient
- Aircraft braking coefficient is affected by liquid water in frozen runway contamination.
- Fuel Conservation
- This document reviews the philosophy of Fuel Conservation
- Fuel Conservation and Fuel Reserve Optimization
- A very interesting document published by All Nippon Airways and dealing with different possibilities to optimize the reserve fuel.
- Fuel Management
- Boeing publication reviewing during the 2006 Operators Symposium all the possible solutions to manage fuel consumption.
- Getting Hands On Experience With Aerodynamic Deteriorations
- Today's tough competitive environment forces airlines to reduce their operational costs in every facet of their business. All ways and means to achieve this goal have to be rationally envisaged, safety being of course the prime factor in any airline operation. A wide variety of different aspects have to be taken into consideration in this process, such as airline economics, airline management, flight operations, maintenance management, technical condition of aircraft. The purpose of this document is to examine the influence of the latter with respect to aerodynamic deterioration.
- Getting to Grips to Aircraft Noise
- Among the various environmental concerns, the aircraft noise item has been constantly growing in importance over the past years. Indeed, unlike a Mozarts symphony, airplane noise is one of those sounds which are undesirable to most of the observers. Its various effects on man, especially on the people living in the vicinity of civilian and military airfields must be studied to be better accounted for. This shall allow the determination and continuous refinement of indices reflecting noise impact, in order to develop an appropriate noise policy. The latter has the difficult mission to conciliate both the noise reduction around airfields while not penalizing too much the airlines operations, that is to say the air transport industry as a whole.
- Getting to Grips With Aircraft Performance
- This Airbus document provides reminders on aerodynamics, flight mechanics, altimetry, influence of external parameters on aircraft performance, flight optimization concepts, etc. Great information...
- Getting To Grips With ALAR
- This brochure provides an overview of the flying techniques and operational aspects involved in approach-and-landing accidents.
- Getting To Grips With Cold Weather Operations
- The purpose of this document is to provide Airbus operators with an understanding of Airbus aircraft operations in cold weather conditions, and address such aspects as aircraft contamination, performance on contaminated runways, fuel freezing limitations and altimeter corrections.
- Getting To Grips With Fuel Economy
- There is nothing to add: everything is the main title!
- Getting To Grips With Perfomance Monitoring
- The purpose of this brochure is to provide airline flight operations with some recommendations on the way to regularly monitor their aircraft performance. This brochure was designed to provide guidelines for aircraft performance monitoring based on the feedback obtained from many operators and on the knowledge of Airbus aircraft and systems.
- Getting To Grips With The Cost Index
- Today's tough competitive environment forces airlines to consider operational costs in every facet of their business. All ways and means to achieve this goal have to be rationally envisaged, safety being of course the prime factor in any airline operation. A wide spectrum of considerations intervene in this process stemming from airline economics, marketing management, crew scheduling, flight operations, engineering and maintenance management, technical condition of aircraft. The idea behind this document is to revisit the cost index concept with a view towards balancing both fuel- and time-related costs.
- Getting To Grips With Weight and Balance
- This material describes the cargo loading areas on Airbus aircraft and the systems related to cargo holds.
- Jet Fuel Characteristics
- This document provides a brief introduction to aviation fuel definitions and characteristics, familiarizes you with terminology and industry jargon,addresses operational concerns related to fuel, and exchanges some insight into the energy of flight.
- Low Fuel temperatures
- Basics, principles of operations and a new software tool for operational predictions
- Managing Uneven Brake Temperatures
- Operators typically purchase twin-aisle airplanes for long-distance flights. However, when market conditions dictate, operators may use some of these airplanes on shorter flights. In such instances, appropriate action by the flight crew can reduce the likelihood of brake overheating and concomitant departure delays.
- Maximum Altitude Operations
- The maximum altitude at which an airplane can be flown is limited by three factors: 1) the maximum certified altitude 2) the buffet-limited maximum altitude 3) the thrust-limited maximum altitude. The most limiting of these three altitudes defines the maximum operating altitude...
- Operations In Mountainous Areas
- One of the very best documents published on a very sensitive operational topic.
- Performance Margins
- When an aircraft is dispatched in accordance with certification and operational regulations, there are some inherent margins included in the calculated takeoff and landing performance. Although it is not permitted to take advantage of these margins in order to increase the aircraft performance limit weight, it is of interest to be aware of the magnitude of these margins.
- Pilot braking Action Reports
- Pilot braking action reports that are based on reliable assessment procedures and that use the proper terminology are potentially valuable supplements to other runway condition information. The limitations of pilot braking action reports should be understood.
- Principles Of Takeoff Optimization
- How to optimize Takeoff performance? This document has been published by Airbus for the 14th Performance & Operations Conference.
- Range of V1
- Boeing goes well beyond the idea that V1 is the speed at which the takeoff should be continued unless the stopping maneuver has already been initiated.
- Recommendations For De Icing and Anti Icing
- Recommendations For De-Icing and Anti-Icing published by the AEA (Association Of European Airlines). The AEA De-icing/Anti-icing Working Group is the European focal point for the continuous development of safe, economical and environmentally friendly standards and procedures for the deicing/anti-icing of aircraft on the ground in conjunction with related international standards
- Reduced Thrust Operations
- Topics of discussion are numerous: benefits of using Reduced Thrust, Methods for Reduced Takeoff Thrust, Regulatory requirements, thrust effect on takeoff performance, assumed temperature method. This is an exhaustive brochure.
- Reducing Flight Operation Cost
- This SAS Braathens document has been published by Boeing during one of its latest symposiums. Once again it is well illustrated and quite interesting to read.
- Review Of Performance Requirements
- Most current performance requirements for the certification and operation of transport category airplanes were established at the beginning of the jet age. Today, operating experience and data provide the most accurate means to further improve the performance requirements of modern transport airplanes.
- Takeoff Speed Determination at Low Weight
- Reminders on Airbus recommendations.
- Takeoff Thrust Setting
- Takeoff Thrust Setting Review for Airbus Operators.
- Understanding Improved Climb
- What is Improved Climb? How is Improved Climb used? Explore in this Boeing document all the operational considerations of "improving" climb performance
- Understanding Takeoff Speeds
- The objective of this Briefing is to provide, from an operational perspective, an overall review of takeoff speeds, and of the factors that affect the calculation and use of V speeds.
- Understanding Takeoff Thrust Setting Technique
- This well-illustrated document to help pilots to understand different takoff thrust setting techniques.
- Understanding The Angle Of Attack (Part1)
- Since the early days of flight, angle of attack (AOA) has been a key aeronauticalengineering parameter and is fundamental to understanding many aspects of airplane performance, stability, and control. Virtually any book on these subjects, as well as basic texts and instructional material written for flight crews, defines AOA and discusses its many attributes...
- Understanding The Angle Of Attack (Part2)
- This Boeing article deals again with Angle of attack (AOA) which is an aerodynamic parameter that is key to understanding the limits of airplane performance. Recent accidents and incidents have resulted in new flight crew training programs, which in turn have raised interest in AOA in commercial aviation. Awareness of AOA is vitally important as the airplane nears stall. It is less useful to the flight crew in the normal operational range. On most Boeing models currently in production, AOA information is presented in several ways: stick shaker, airspeed tape, and pitch limit indicator. Boeing has also developed a dedicated AOA indicator integral to the flight crew’s primary flight displays.
- V1 and GO No Go Decision
- This Boeing document reviews the importance of V1, statistics of past Rejected Takeoff (RTO) accidents and incidents and tries to provide an appropriate education for a better
- Wake Turbulence Analysis
- odays portable sensors and data-analysis techniques enable scientists worldwide to visualize dimensions, measure velocities and track positions of wake vortices generated by specific variants of large commercial jets.
- Wingtip Devices
- Wingtip Devices: what they do and how they do it. A Boeing aerodynamist explains in very simple words what is hidden between "induced drag reduction", "vortex", "winglets" and so on.
- Engines
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- CFM Flight Ops Support A320
- CFM Flight Ops Support B737
- Derate Takeoff by CFM
- Economic Impact of Derated Climb on Large Commercial Engines
- Aircraft engines are sized and power managed to meet takeoff field length and climb rate requirements at the maximum takeoff gross weight (TOGW). When operating at reduced TOGW, reduced thrust (derate) may be used in both takeoff and climb to extend engine life and reduce maintenance cost.
- Engine Ignition Selection
- This document has been published by Airbus and deals with Engine Ignition Selection.
- Engine Operation and Malfunctions
- The purpose of this document is to provide straightforward material to give flight crews the basics of airplane engine operational theory. This document will also provide pertinent information about malfunctions that may be encountered during the operation of turbofanpowered airplanes, especially those malfunctions that cannot be simulated well and may thus cause confusion.
- Engine Performance Deterioration by CFM
- Engine Power Loss In Ice Crystal Conditions
- High-altitude ice crystals in convective weather are now recognized as a cause of engine damage and engine power loss that affects multiple models of commercial airplanes and engines. These events typically have occurred in conditions that appear benign to pilots, including an absence of airframe icing and only light turbulence.
- Engine Regulation by CFM
- Engines Thrust Loss
- Review of operational impact
- Fuel Filter Contamination
- Dirty fuel is the main cause of engine fuel filter contamination. Although it’s a difficult problem to isolate, airlines can take steps to deal with it, including auditing fuel suppliers to ensure that they are following applicable fuel handling requirements and replacing engine fuel filters more often.
- Handling Engine Malfunctions
- The objective of this Briefing is to provide basic guidelines to identify engine malfunctions and to give typical operational recommendations in case of engine malfunctions.
- Ice Crystal Weather Threat To Engines
- Inflight Airplane Vibration
- Modern commercial jet airplanes provide smooth, comfortable travel that typically is free of vibration. Some types of vibration can be expected from time to time and are considered normal. However, isolated cases of abnormal vibration require prompt flight crew response and subsequent timely maintenance action.
- Jet Engines Basics
- Jet Engines basics developped and published by Boeing. A very well illustratated document!
- Preventing Engine Ingestion Injuries
- History has shown that failure to observe proper safety precautions, such as good communication and awareness of the hazard areas in the vicinity of an operating jet engine, can result in serious injury or death. The risk of ingestion can be prevented with appropriate training and adherence to the safety precautions
- The Migration To Higher Thrust Engines And The Effect On Control Speeds
- For the B777 airplane the growth in engine thrust levels has increased since the original PW4074 engine. This original engine was rated at 74000 pounds of thrust and was envisioned to grow to around 95000 pounds of thrust.
- Understanding Airplane Turbofan Engine Operation Helps Flight Crews Respond to Malfunctions
- Maintaining aircraft control, diagnosing correctly the engine malfunction and taking appropriate action are the keys to continued safe flight.
- Flying technique
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- Airbus Braking Recommendations
- Airbus pilots will find in this Airbus briefing lots of information concerning braking recommendations. This document covers all phases of flight from the preliminary cockpit preparation to the end of of the flight.
- Airbus Go-Around Essentials
- An excellent document about go-around essentials...
- Aircraft Energy Management During Approach
- Inability to assess or manage the aircraft energy level during the approach often is cited as a causal factor in unstabilized approaches. Either a deficit of energy (being low and/or slow) or an excess of energy (being high and/or fast) may result in approach-and-landing accidents, such as: loss of control, landing short, hard landing, tail strike; runway excursion and/or runway overrun. This Airbus Flight Operations Briefing Note provides background information and operational guidelines for a better understanding of energy management during intermediate approach and during final approach.
- Airplane Upset Recovery by Airbus
- This Airbus Training Aid itself was the basis of the article entitled “Aerodynamic Principles Of Large Aircraft Upsets” that appeared as a Special Edition of FAST in June 1998
- Airplane Upset Recovery by Boeing (Part 1)
- The information and techniques presented in this Boeing training aid are aimed at industry solutions for large swept-wing turbofan airplanes typically seating more than 100 passengers.
- Airplane Upset Recovery by Boeing (Part 2)
- This document is the following of the Airplane Upset Recovery Part 1
- Approach Hazards Awareness
- Factors that may contribute to approach-and- landing accidents include flight over hilly terrain, reduced visibility, visual illusions, adverse winds, contaminated runways and/or limited approach aids. Flight crews should be aware of the compounding nature of these hazards during approach and landing.
- Attitude Adjustment
- Updates guidance and research findings boost confidence that airplane upset recovery is on the right track
- Autoland on Contaminated Runways
- Autoland systems were developped for landing in fog but since its introduction, use of autoland has been extended into other areas that were not considered at the outset. Operations on contaminated runways are not considered during certification but the case is practically studied. This article has been published for the 10th Performance and Operations Conference in 1998.
- Avoiding Altitude Deviations
- This document has been published by the respected and well-known Flight Safety Foundation. Safety can be jeopardized when aircraft deviate from their assigned altitudes. Carefully implemented altitude awareness programs have been adopted by some airlines. These proven programs focus on improving communications, altitude alerter setting procedure, crew prioritization and task allocation, and ensuring correct altimeter settings.
- Avoiding Tailstrikes by Airbus
- In this document Airbus provides statistics, most common causes, factors affecting the margins, reviews aircraft design features and gives operational recommendations.
- Avoiding Tailstrikes by Boeing
- Boeing makes here a human factors approach to preventing Tail Strikes. Very interesting document.
- Baghdad A300 Incident
- This article is a tribute to the DHL Airbus A300 crew who has been hit by a missile while taking off from Baghdad. After having lost hydraulic power, the crew had then to learn how to fly and land an asymmetric aircraft using the only thrust control. Airbus explains this whole incredible and dramatic story.
- Bound Recovery and Rejected Landing Techniques
- Although a rare occurrence, a rejected landing is a challenging maneuver decided and conducted in an unanticipated and unprepared manner.
- Brake Energy Consideration In Flight Operation
- Brake energy limitations may not be common for most operators, and so are not well understood:
- Circle To Land At High and Hot Altitude Airports
- Airbus has been asked by some operators to study the case of a circling approach at high altitude airports with one engine failed.This study has shown that the published procedure may not be adequate at high altitude, but also at high temperature.
- Crosswind Guidelines
- This Boeing document explains origin of crosswind guidelines and reviews crosswind values, crosswind effects on high by-pass engine airplanes and takeoff and landing techniques.
- Crosswind Landings Technique
- Operations in crosswind conditions require strict adherence to applicable crosswind limitations or maximum recommended crosswind values, operational recommendations and handling techniques, particularly when operating on wet or contaminated runways.
- Descent and Approach Profile Management
- Inadequate management of descent-and-approach profile and/or incorrect management of aircraft energy level may lead to loss of vertical situational awareness and/or rushed and unstabilized approaches. Either situation increases the risk of approach-and-landing accidents, including those involving CFIT.
- Driftdown and Oxygen Procedures Over High Terrain
- Driftdown and Oxygen Procedure and lessons learnt from an arline perspective.
- Flying Stabilized Approaches
- This briefing note is intended to help the reader gain and maintain situational awareness, to prevent falling into the traps associated with the loss of situational awareness and to avoid the adverse effects of the loss of situational awareness on flight safety.
- Fuel Conservation Strategies - Cost Index Explained
- Used appropriately, the cost index (CI) feature of the flight management computer (FMC) can help airlines significantly reduce operating costs. However, many operators dont take full advantage of this powerful tool.
- Fuel Conservation Strategies : Cruise Flight
- A good understanding of cruise flight can not only help crews operate efficiently and save their companies money, but can also help them deal with low fuel situations. As an additional benefit, the less fuel consumed, the more environmentally friendly the flight.
- Fuel Conservation Strategies : Descent and Approach
- Pilots are often forced to deal with shorter-term restraints that may require them to temporarily abandon their cruise strategy one or more times during a flight.
- Fuel Conservation Strategies : Takeoff and Climb
- Every takeoff is an opportunity to save fuel. If each takeoff and climb is performed efficiently, an airline can realize significant savings over time. But what constitutes an efficient takeoff? How should a climb be executed for maximum fuel savings? The most efficient flights actually begin long before the airplane is cleared for takeoff.
- Getting To Grips With CATII and CATIII
- The purpose of this document is to provide Airbus pilots with the agreed interpretations of the currently AWO (All Weather Operations) regulations.
- Glasscockpit Transition
- This special issue of Flight Safety Digest presents two reports on the experiences of pilots who fly aircraft with glass cockpit that is, modern aircraft with highly automated flight management systems and electronic flight instrument systems. The reports sample the views of line pilots regarding the advantages and disadvantages of flying these advanced-technology aircraft.
- Go-Around - Failure to Mitigate
- Studying the psychology of decision making during unstable approaches and why go-around policies are ineffective.
- Go-Around - Strategies & Recommendations
- The very respected Flight Safety Foundation has published a list of recommendations about how to combat the psychology of non-compliance with GA policies and procedures
- Go-Around Review
- Most air transport pilots lack adequate training in how to perform the most common go-arounds those with both engines operating in the high-pressure environment of a missed approach, according to a study by the French Bureau dEnqutes et dAnalyses (BEA).
- Go-Around Risks
- Relative-safety factors influence flight crews to perform far fewer missed approaches than predicted by the incidence of unstabilized approaches. The timing of the decision can be critical to the maneuvers outcome.
- Go-Around Study
- The Flight Safety Foundation analyzed 16 years of aircraft accident data and found that the most common type of accident is the runway excursion. They noted that the almost complete (97 percent) failure to call go-arounds as a preventive mitigation of the risk of continuing to fly unstable approaches constituted the no. 1 cause of runway excursions, and therefore of approach and landing accidents.
- Hazards Of Flight In Heavy Rain
- In the summer of 1997 there were two accidents, involving the loss of large transport aircraft, which occurred in very heavy rain. The first casualty was a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 which came down on Guam, and the second, a Vietnamese Tupolev in Cambodia. Both aircraft accidents occurred in torrential rain on approach to an airport. Although it may turn out that rain was not a factor in either of these accidents, research indicates that heavy rainfall can have a significant effect on the performance of an aircraft.
- High Altitude Handling
- Center of gravity (CG) and altitude significantly affect the longitudinal stability of an airplane. An understanding of handling characteristics at various CG positions and altitudes permits flight crews to use proper control inputs when manually flying throughout the flight envelope.
- How to Make Go-Arounds Safer
- A lack of go around decision is the leading factor in the majority of approach and landing accidents. One in ten go around reports records a potentially hazardous go-around outcome. This article gives some hints on how to make it more efficient and safer.
- Insidious Ice
- Basic physics makes slippery-runway issues crystal clear!
- Landing on Contaminated Runways
- Landing on Contaminated Runways involves increased levels of risk related to deceleration and directional control. Aircraft Landing Performance data takes account of the deceleration issues in scheduling the Landing Distance Required (LDR), and the Aircraft Limitations specified in the AFM can be expected to impose a reduced maximum crosswind limitation. Operator Procedures may further restrict all such operations, or impose flight crew-specific restrictions or requirements. Despite all procedural precautions, contaminated runway landings are a rare event for most flight crews and although this serves to ensure a full focus on the task, the lack of real experience, and the limited ability to create realistic scenarios in most simulators, means that a full understanding of the issues involved can be an additional safeguard.
- Landing Overruns
- This Boeing document is a review of the events leading to, and lessons learnt from the over-run of Quantas B747-400 at Bangkok Thailand, September 23, 1999.
- Let's Be Careful During Visual Approaches
- The Flight Safety Foundation Approach-and-landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) Task Force found that visual approaches were being conducted in 41 percent of 118 fatal approach-andlanding accidents worldwide in 1980 through 1996
- Loss Of Control Returning From Beyond The Envelope
- To reduce loss of control accidents, the U.S. government has funded a program to provide airplane-upset-recovery training for 2,000 airline pilots. The training is conducted in an aerobatic single-engine airplane and in a multi-engine jet modified as a variable-stability in-flight simulator.
- Moment of Truth
- Right adherence to procedures fo takeof weight, enter of gravity and stabilizer trim setting reduces the likehood of uncommanded or delayed rotation
- Narrow Runway Operations
- Boeing asks a very simple question: "how narrow is narrow?"
- Operation With Minimum Fuel
- A very interesting and detailed technical article issued by Airbus.
- Operations On Grooved Runways
- How to improve Stopping Distances on specifically prepared runways.
- Optimum Use Of Automation
- The term ''optimum use of automation'' refers to the integrated and coordinated use of Autopilot / Flight Director, Autothrottle / autothrust, and Flight Management System.
- Overweight Landing What to Consider
- An overweight landing is defined as a landing made at a gross weight in excess of the maximum design (i.e., structural) landing weight for a particular model. A pilot may consider making an overweight landing when a situation arises that requires the airplane to return to the takeoff airport or divert to another airport soon after takeoff. In these cases, the airplane may arrive at the landing airport at a weight considerably above the maximum design landing weight. The pilot must then decide whether to reduce the weight prior to landing or land overweight. The weight can be reduced either by holding to burn off fuel or by jettisoning fuel. There are important issues to consider when a decision must be made to land overweight, burn off fuel, or jettison fuel (when possible).
- Performing Safe Go-Around Maneuvers
- A go-around maneuver may be performed in a number of situations, including when requested by air traffic control (ATC) or when an airplane is making an unstabilized approach. Once a go-around decision has been made, flight crews must focus on ensuring that the maneuver is flown correctly by being aware of the difficulties that can occur and following the appropriate procedures to address those difficulties. A go-around maneuver can be both effective and safe when performed according to standard operating procedures by crews who are alerted to possible hazards.
- Preparing The Approach In Case Of Engine Failure
- In this briefing, Airbus explains how to determine Landing Distance and approach speed determination in case of an engine failure during approach. It also reviews the case of multiple failures, use of the autopilot and autothrottle. This document contents an exhaustive study on a topic rarely detailed...
- Preventing Altitude Deviations and Level Busts
- This Briefing Note provides an overview of the factors involved in altitude deviations. This document can be used for stand-alone reading or as the basis for the development of an airline’s altitude awareness program.
- Preventing Hard Nosegear Touchdowns
- In recent years, there has been an increase in the incidence of significant structural damage to commercial airplanes from hard nosegear touchdowns. In most cases, the main gear touchdowns were relatively normal. The damage resulted from high nose-down pitch rates generated by full or nearly full forward control column application before nosegear touchdown. Flight crews need to be aware of the potential for significant structural damage from hard nosegear contact and know which actions to take to prevent such incidents.
- Preventing Tail Strikes
- Tail strikes can cause significant damage and cost operators millions of dollars in repairs and lost revenue. In the most extreme scenario, a tail strike can cause pressure bulkhead failure, which can ultimately lead to structural failure; however, long shallow scratches that are not repaired correctly can also result in increased risks. Yet tail strikes can be prevented when flight crews understand their causes and follow certain standard procedures.
- Preventing Tailstrike at Takeoff
- The purpose of this Airbus Briefing is to address tailstrikes occurrence at takeoff.
- Preventing Tailstrikes At Landing
- The purpose of this Airbus Flight Operations Briefing Note is to address tailstrike occurrence at landing.
- Proper Landing Technique
- This Flight Operations Review has been initialy published by Boeing in 1986. It discussses the key elements that lead to a good landing.
- Pushback Hazards
- Pushbacks present a potentially serious hazard to ground personnel. From 1964 through December 1991, a search of the Boeing Product Safety Jet Transport Safety Events data base revealed 31 reported accidents worldwide where personnel were run over by the airplane wheels during the pushback process.
- Quiet Climb
- Boeing has developed the Quiet Climb System, an automated avionics feature for quiet procedures that involve thrust cutback after takeoff. By reducing and restoring thrust automatically, the system lessens crew workload and results in a consistently quiet footprint, which helps airlines comply with restrictions and may allow for an increase in takeoff payload.
- Reducing Runway Landing Overruns
- Working with industry, Boeing is implementing a combination of procedural improvements, flight crew knowledge, and flight deck enhancements to mitigate runway overrun excursions during landing.
- Reducing the Risk of Runway Excursions
- At the request of several international aviation organizations in late 2006, the Flight Safety Foundation initiated a project entitled Runway Safety Initiative (RSI) to address the challenge of runway safety. This was an international effort with participants representing the full spectrum of stakeholders from the aviation community. The effort initially reviewed the three areas of runway safety: runway incursions, runway confusion, and runway excursions. After a review of current runway safety efforts, specific data on the various aspects of runway safety were obtained. After reviewing the initial data, the RSI Group determined that it would be most effective to focus its efforts on reducing the risk of runway excursions.
- Rejected Landing
- A rejected landing (also referred to as an aborted landing) is defined as a go-around maneuver initiated after touchdown of the main landing gear or after bouncing. Although a rare occurrence, a rejected landing is a challenging maneuver decided and conducted in an unanticipated and unprepared manner...
- Rejected Takeoff On Slippery Runway
- This Flight Safety Foundation produced a very good debriefing of an accident which involved a Tower Air 747 classics on takeoff...
- Response To Stall Warning Activation at Takeoff
- This Airbus Briefing Note is primarily designed for aircraft that do not have flight envelope protection (e.g. A300/A310/A300-600). However, the key points at the end of this briefing note are also applicable to all aircraft types, with or without flight envelope protection.
- Slippery Runways
- This article reviews the principles of tire traction, landing techniques and the use of brakes, speedbrakes and reverse thrust to stop the airplane during landing...
- Stabilized Approach And Flare Against Hard Landings
- Flight crews primarily use their judgment to identify and report hard landings, but recorded flight data also might be useful to gauge the severity of the impact before a conditional maintenance inspection is performed. The accident record shows that hard landings often involve substantial damage and sometimes result in fatalities.
- Stall Review and Recovery Procedures
- This very interesting document makes the operational community aware of the review of the traditional methods of "Stall" and "Approach to Stall" recovery techniques
- Stop and No Go Decision
- A high speed rejected takeoff during the takeoff roll. The decision on whether or not to perform a rejected takeoff -specifically, on whether or not to STOP or GO- requires comprehensive flight crew awareness of the many risks involved. The aim of this Airbus Flight Operations Briefing Note is, therefore, to review the STOP or GO decision-making process, and the associated operational and prevention strategies to be applied, in order to limit the risks of taking inappropriate actions and unsafe decisions.
- Tailstrikes In Gusty Wind
- This interesting Boeing document reviews causes and prevention, training recommendations and preventive measures to avoid tailstrikes in strong gusty winds.
- Tailwind Operations
- Tailwind Operations in fixed wing aircraft are considered to be takeoffs or landings with a performance diminishing wind component that is, a tailwind.
- Takeoff and Landing In Icing Conditions
- There have been a number of accidents related to take-off in conditions in which snow and/or other forms of freezing precipitation were falling while the aircraft was on the ground preparing for departure. While there is no doubt that air crew have a clear understanding of the legal and airline requirement for "clean" aircraft prior to departure, there are times when pilots must exercise their judgment in determining whether or not small accumulations on the wings or other aerodynamic surfaces constitute accumulations which may have an impact on the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. This article provides additional information on the performance and handling of the aircraft with contamination on the wings and other flying surfaces to assist pilots in making these critical go/ no-go decisions.
- Takeoff Rotation
- This Airbus production reviews some rotation flying techniques and is written as a reminder of various recommendations. This document is specific to Airbus pilots.
- Takeoff Safety Training Aid
- Airframe manufacturers, airlines,pilot groups, and government andregulatoryagencies, have developed this training resource dedicated to reducing the number of rejected takeoff (RTO) accidents.
- Takeoff With Upper Wing Frost
- Airbus Recommendations.
- Taxi Procedures
- Taxi incidents are usually perceived to be less dangerous than incidents in flight,but they may cost a lot of money! This Airbus document reviews some safety precautions specific to Airbus aircraft, pushback and taxi techniques (One-Engine Taxi - A340 Two Engines), powerpush, taxi with Deflated Tires, etc.
- Taxing with Carbon brakes
- Carbon brakes are now standard equipment.The use of these brakes provides a substantial reduction in airplane operating empty weight, but in-service experience has generally shown lower brake life than originally expected. Analysis has revealed a difference between the wear characteristics of carbon versus steel brakes. It is believed that improvements in carbon brake life can be achieved through better understanding of the operational factors affecting carbon brake life.
- Teaching UPRT
- pset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) will take many airline pilots out of their comfort zone, exposing them to places unknown. For most of their instructors, too, these places until recently were unfamiliar territory. This article explains why that is the case, and will help newcomers to this subject quickly grasp the essentials of the paradigm shift under way.
- Understanding Runways Excursions
- A runway excursion occurs when an aircraft departs the runway in use during the take-off or landing run. The excursion may be intentional or unintentional. there are 3 main types of Runway Excursion 1. A departing aircraft fails to become airborne or successfully reject the take off before reaching the end of the designated runway. 2. A landing aircraft is unable to stop before the end of the designated runway is reached. 3.An aircraft taking off, rejecting take off or landing departs the side of the designated runway.
- Understanding The Stall Recovery Procedure For Turboprop in Icing Conditions
- Airframe manufacturers, airlines,pilot groups, and government andregulatoryagencies, have developed this training resource dedicated to reducing the number of rejected takeoff (RTO) accidents.
- Unreliable Speed
- Recall of the last procedure enhancements.
- Use Of Rudder On Airbus Aircraft
- On February 8th, 2002, The National Transportation safety Board (NTSB) in cooperation with the French "Bureau Enquetes Accidents" (BEA) issued recommendations that aircraft manufacturers re-emphazise the structural certification requirements for the rudder and vertical stabilizer, showing how some maneuvers can result in exceeding limits and even load to structural failure. The purpose of this Airbus FCOM Bulletin is to re-emphazise proper operational use of the rudder, highlight certification requirements and rudder control design characteristics.
- Use Of VNAV On NPA
- As the computer technology of aircraft navigation systems became more and more sophisticated, aircraft and avionics manufacturers attempt to exploit this computer capability in aircraft operations. One of the most profound capabilities being exploited recently is the aircrafts capability of navigating vertically on an instrument approach without reference to an external electronic guidance signal such as an ILS glideslope or MLS elevation signal. This mode of operation is called "VNAV". The vertical guidance is usually based on barometric altimetry augmented with information from a mix of navigation sensors. Vertical command information may be retrieved from the aircrafts aeronautical information database or from the pilots input into the Flight Management System (FMS). Vertical command information while conducting VNAV on a conventional non-precision approach is normally retrieved entirely from the aircrafts aeronautical database.
- V1
- The U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations and the European Joint Aviation Requirements redefined V1 as the maximum airspeed at which a flight crew must take the first action to safely reject a takeoff. Other revisions change the method of compensating for the time required by pilots to take action to reject a takeoff; require accelerate-stop data based on airplanes with fully worn brakes; and require wet-runway takeoff-performance data in airplane flight manuals.
- Visual Approaches
- A surprising number of aircraft accidents have occurred during visual approaches or during the visual segment following an instrument approach. An interesting review initiated by Captain Fred H. LORENZ has been published sometime ago.
- Visual Illusions
- Visual illusions result from many factors and appear in many different forms. Illusions occur when conditions modify the pilots perception of the environment relative to his or her expectations, possibly resulting in spatial disorientation or landing errors (e.g., landing short or landing long).
- Wake Turbulence Awareness and Avoidance
- The objective of this briefing is to provide information to help recognize the factors that increase the risk of a wake vortex encounter, Flying techniques to avoid wake turbulence and the information to help recognize the effects of wake turbulence.
- What Lies Below
- Plan to avoid the rocks during an emergency descent.
- Why and When To Perform a Go Around Maneuver
- Industry statistics indicate that while only 3 percent of commercial-airplane-landing approaches meet the criteria for being unstabilized, 97 percent of these unstabilized approaches are continued to a landing, contrary to airline standard operating procedures. Most runway excursions can be attributed at least in part to unstabilized approaches, and runway excursions in several forms are the leading cause of accidents and incidents within the industry. Airlines should emphasize to flight crews the importance of making the proper go-around decision if their landing approach exhibits any element of an unstabilized approach.
- Human factors
- back to the top
- A Human Factors Approach To Prevent Tailstrike
- Causes and prevention review. Training recommendations and strategy.
- Accumulated Stress
- Although small amounts of stress can yield benefits such as increased alertness and an improved ability to concentrate, an accumulation of stress caused by daily frustration and major life events has been associated with numerous health problems. In studies of flight crewmembers, stress has been associated with pilot error.
- Air It Out
- Studies have found no link between cabin air quality and health problems, but some crewmembers and passengers say those studies are wrong.
- Analysis of Crew Conversations Provides Insights for Accident Investigation
- New methods of examining recorded voice communications can help investigators evaluate interactions between flight crewmembers and determine the quality of the work environment on the flight deck.
- Antidepressants in Aviation
- Australian researchers found that pilots who took prescribed antidepressants were no more likely than others to be involved in accidents and incidents.
- Approach and landing Risk Reduction Guide
- The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) Approach-and-landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) Task Force designed this guide as part of the FSF ALAR Tool Kit, which is designed to help prevent ALAs, including those involving controlled flight into terrain. This guide should be used to evaluate specific flight operations and to improve crew awareness of associated risks. This guide is intended for use as a strategic tool (i.e., for long-term planning).
- Calculating Errors
- Mistakes in determining takeoff parameters are frequent, a french study says, and methods of detecting them are not always effective.
- Challenging Behavior
- Despite years of emphasis, some fundamental problems still plague crew interaction, suggesting additional focus on monitoring and challenging could yield safety benefits.
- Cognitive Engineering Analysis Of VNAV
- A cognitive engineering analysis of the Flight Management System (FMS) Vertical Navigation (VNAV) function has identified overloading of the VNAV button and overloading of the Flight Mode Annunciation (FMA) used by the VNAV function. These two types of overloading, resulting in modal input devices and ambiguous feedback, are well known sources of operator confusion, and explain, in part, the operational issues experienced by airline pilots using VNAV in descent and approach. A proposal to modify the existing VNAV design to eliminate the overloading is discussed.
- Communicate Positively with your Passengers
- Using good communication skills with your passengers can vastly improve satisfaction, and may even put anxious fliers at ease.
- Conducting Effective Briefings
- This Airbus Flight Operations Briefing Note provides generic guidelines for conducting effective and productive briefings. Effective briefings should be short, structured, concise and adapted to the particular conditions of the takeoff or approach-and-landing. The information provided in this document has been expanded on purpose to provide an opportunity to review and discuss in details each briefing item.
- Coping With Long range Flying
- This Airbus document provides a practical set of recommendations for the use of longrange crewmembers: alertness decrement, sleep, napping,life hygiene. During long-haul rotations, partial or complete compliance with these recommendations should allow pilots to better manage their levels of alertness in flight, limit sleep loss related to night flights, facilitate, if applicable, adaptation to local layover times, depending on time zone differences. The choice of recommendations will of course have to be adapted to the circumstances. Partial reliance on these recommendations is therefore also acceptable.
- Crew Alertness On Ultra Long Range Operations
- After two years of workshop discussions and follow-up meetings, recommendations have been issued for planning and approving flight-sector lengths greater than 16 hours between specific city pairs. Specialists at these meetings forged operational guidelines that will help the airline industry to expand the operational envelope while maintaining safety.
- CRM Aspects In Accidents and Incidents
- Incidents and accidents involve the entire range of CRM and Human Factors aspects. In incident and accident reports, the flight crew's contribution often is considered to be just what the flight crew did or did not do. This briefing is a focused but limited overview of the broad CRM subject.
- Decision Making
- Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. The decision-making process produces a choice of action or an opinion that determines the decision maker's behavior and therefore has a profound influence on task performance. Decision making in an aeronautical environment involves any pertinent decision a pilot must make during the conduct of a flight. It includes both preflight go/no-go decisions as well as those made during the flight. In aeronautics, decision making is of particular importance because of the safety consequences of poor decisions.
- Decision Trees and Bowties
- Sophisticated analytical tools are available to enhance decision making.
- Discipline as Antidote
- The importance of procedures and the adherence to procedures cannot be overstated.
- Discipline in Aviation
- This article defines discipline and illustrates its importance to safe flight operations. Its objective is to reinforce the importance of discipline as the foundation of airmanship and the need to follow procedures to ensure safe operations. The article also demonstrates that poor discipline is the direct result of attitudes that may lead a pilot to deviate from Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). It also describes defenses and controls for these attitudes that will enable flight crews to enhance flight safety through improved personal discipline.
- Dry and High
- Dehydratation causes an insidious degradation of pilot performance that must not be lightly regarded.
- Effective Pilot and Controller Communications
- Communications between controllers and pilots can be improved by the mutual understanding of each other's operating environment.
- Enhancing Flight crew Monitoring Skills Can Increase Flight Safety
- Safety problems can arise from insufficient monitoring by the flight crew. Monitoring can be degraded because of several factors, including preoccupation with other duties.
- Enhancing Situation Awareness
- This Flight Operations Briefing Note presents a definition of situational awareness. It explains the complex process of gaining and maintaining situational awareness, focuses on how it may be lost and proposes prevention and recovery strategies. This briefing note is intended to help the reader gain and maintain situational awareness, to prevent falling into the traps associated with the loss of situational awareness and to avoid the adverse effects of the loss of situational awareness on flight safety.
- Error Management
- This Briefing provides an overview and discussion of Criteria defining a stabilized approach and, factors involved in rushed and unstabilized approaches.
- Explaining Leadership and Followership
- This training manual was produced by Western Michigan University School of Aviation Sciences and Battelle Memorial Institute with assistance from Alaska Airlines and the office of the Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Human Factors to the Federal Aviation Administration. It is a continuation of the project to identify leadership and followership skills used in CRM, and builds on the previous published manual Cockpit Leadership and Followership Skills: Theoretical Perspectives and Training Guidelines.
- Flight Crew Briefing
- An effective crew briefing is an opportunity to transform a group of individuals into a highly effective team
- Getting To Grips With Fatigue and Alertness Management
- This Airbus document provides a practical set of recommendations for the use of long range crewmembers
- Golden Rules
- The operations Golden Rules defined by Airbus assist trainees in maintaining their basic airmanship as they progress to increasingly integrated and automated aircraft models.
- Handling an emergency
- Most of us will go through our entire careers without ever having to declare an emergency. For those who do pull the short straw however, there are some basic considerations that apply, regardless of the specific problem(s). The desired outcome for any emergency situation is a controlled rate of descent onto a prepared surface.
- How To Deal With A Fire in flight
- In the wake of the Swissair MD-11 crash, the two largest operators of MD-11s in the U.S. are instructing pilots to land quickly if they smell smoke or encounter major electrical problems. Delta and FedEx have put out the word to "land now, troubleshoot later." The FAA has urged since 1980 that pilots smelling smoke should get on the ground as soon as possible...
- Human Factors Aspects In Incidents and Accidents
- This Airbus Flight Operations Briefing Note provides a summary of human factors issues identified in incidents and accidents. This summary may be used either to assess: the company exposure and develop corresponding prevention strategies,or the reader’s individual exposure and develop corresponding personal lines-of-defense. Ultimately, human factors are involved in all incidents and accidents. Whether crew-related, ATC-related, maintenance-related, organization-related or design-related, each link of the safety chain involves human beings and, therefore, human decisions and potential human errors...
- Human Factors Considerations for Performance Based Navigation
- RNAV and RNP procedures have increased the importance of some tasks performed by pilots and have also introduced some new ones. Pilots must allow adequate time to properly load and brief their SID, STAR, and approach charts. While containing many elements common with existing procedures, these procedures can be more detailed than their conventional counterparts. Considering the increased reliance on the FMS for RNAV and RNP procedures, airlines may benefit from reviewing their training programs and ensuring that they meet pilot workload and situation awareness demands.
- Human Factors In Accidents and Incidents
- This briefing provides a summary of human factors issues identified in incidents and accidents. It may be used either to assess the company exposure and develop corresponding prevention strategies, or, the reader’s individual exposure and develop corresponding personal lines-of-defense.
- Human Factors Report Propulsion System Malfunction Plus Inappropriate Crew Response
- The task report presented herewith was undertaken by Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and The European Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA) at the request of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in response to a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendation arising from the 13 December 1994 turboprop-airplane accident at Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, U.S., which resulted in fatal injuries to 13 passengers and two crewmembers. The NTSB findings in this event strongly suggested that a warning light intended to indicate the activation of a recovery function was falsely interpreted as an engine failure and led to inappropriate crew action. The FAA recognized that there were additional data suggesting that this accident was one of a number of similar accidents, and that a study would be appropriate to look into all commercial transport accident histories where an inappropriate crew action may have been taken in response to what should have been a benign propulsion system malfunction.
- Hurry Up Syndrom
- Aviation's worst disaster, the terrible KLM / Pan Am accident at Tenerife,, was due in great part to schedule pressure p r o b I e m s experienced by both flight crews. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) conducted an eighteen month, three country investigation of this accident, with an emphasis on the human factors of flight crew performance, ALPA found that the KLM crew had strong concerns relating to duty time, specifically that they would be able to return to Amsterdam that evening and remain within their duty time regulations. They also expressed concern about the weather and its potential to delay the impending take-off. The cockpit voice recorder indicated the KLM captain said, "Hurry, or else it [the weather] will close again completely".
- Identifying Possible Risk Of Hearing Loss
- Exposure to loud noises during flight operations and while off duty compounds the risk, but earplugs and headsets help counteract hearing loss.
- Increasing Efficiency of Communication
- Examining communication between flight crew members & their interface with ATC provides a framework from which the underlying causes of listening and dialogue errors can be described and improvement strategies mapped out.
- Interacting Loops of Rik Management and Risk Perception
- An interesting study published by Department of Cognitive Science University of California San Diego
- Limitations of the See and Avoid principle
- In 1991, BASI (The Bureau of Air Safety Investigation) published a research report titled, Limitations of the See-and-Avoid Principle. This report concluded that "the see-and-avoid principle, In the absence of traffic alerts, is subject to serious limitations". Unalerted see-and-avoid has a "limited place as a last resort means of traffic separation at low closing speeds, and is completely unsuitable as primary traffic separation for scheduled services". This report highlighted the fact that "many of the limitations of see-and avoid are associated with physical limits and human perception", and encouraged pilots to be, "made aware of the limitations of the see-and-avoid procedure, particularly the factors which can reduce a pilot's effective visual field".
- Lower Back Pain complaint
- Although data are not available on flight crewmembers with lower back pain, the numbers presumably are similar to those for the general population, and several studies — primarily involving flight crewmembers on military helicopters — have attempted to gauge the frequency of back pain among pilots.
- Managing Interruptions and Distractions
- The omission of an action or an inappropriate action is the most frequent causal factor in incidents and accidents. Interruptions and distractions occur frequently. Some cannot be avoided, some can be minimized or eliminated.
- Managing Sleep for Night Shifts
- Aviation professionals, pilots, flight attendants, maintenance technicians, air traffic control personnel and others — can adopt sound sleep practices to counteract sleepiness at work, improve performance and reduce safety risks by understanding factors that affect human ability to sleep during the day and to work at night.
- Managing Threats and Errors During Approach and Landing
- This presentation provides an overview of the prevention strategies and personal lines-of-defense related to runway overruns. It is intended to enhance the reader's awareness but it shall not supersede the applicable regulations or airline's operational documentation.
- Models of Threat Error and CRM in Flight Operations
- Issues in Crew Resource Management (CRM) are discussed, including its definition and primary goals of recognizing and managing threat and error. CRM is a component of an organizations safety efforts and must be driven by valid data on operational issues. Data requirements for a safety culture include proactive information on crew behavior. The use of non-jeopardy, Line Operations Safety Audits (LOSA) to document threat, error, and crew behavior in line operations is discussed. Models of threat and error in the aviation system are presented, based on LOSA data from three airlines.
- Monitoring Matters: Guidance on the Development of Pilot Monitoring Skills
- Loss of Control is prioritized as the most important of the significant seven safety issues and the application of effective pilot monitoring is identified as a key safety net in the prevention of and recovery from Loss of Control accidents and incidents. Monitoring is an essential ingredient in achieving synergy with highly automated and complex aircraft systems and effective crew co-ordination.
- Physiological Concerns of Heat
- The mercury's rising, summer's promise is becoming a reality and you're looking forward to some relaxed flying in the lazy, hazy months. In anticipation of summer, flight crews brush up on an assortment of operating concerns, but often ignored is how the human body performs in our thermal environment. High ambient temperatures and other performance factors affect it in much the same manner as an aircraft.
- Pilot Fatigue
- When a pilot becomes tired, problem-solving slows, motor skills degrade and attentiveness is impaired. Many accident-causing human errors are probably the result of pilot fatigue.
- Protect Your Hearing
- Aviation can be a noisy business that can assault tour ears and chip away at your ability to hear clearly. Prevention is your only effective defense.
- Right Talk From The Right Seat
- Despite lessons drawn from cockpit resource management programs, the language of the flight deck varies by the seat being occupied - and peril can hide in the syntax. We need new rules of speech.
- See and avoid
- Eye function and eye-brain coordination are not naturally optimized for visual searches in airspace. But experimental evidence shows that pilots can train themselves in techniques for more effective visual detection of traffic.
- Situational Awareness
- This article presents a definition of situational awareness. It explains the complex process of maintaining situational awareness, focuses on how it is lost and proposes prevention and recovery strategies. It is intended to help the reader gain and maintain situational awareness, to prevent falling into the traps associated with its loss and to avoid the negative effects of its loss on flight safety.
- Skin Cancer Prevention
- Flight crews and cabin crews should take precautions against exposure to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight while on airport ramps and during layovers.
- Speaking Up
- Voluntary safey reports by flight attendants prove to be more valuable than expected.
- Standard Calls
- Standard phraseology is essential to ensure effective crew communication, particularly in today’s operating environment. Standard calls are intended and designed to enhance the efficiency of crew coordination and update the flightcrew situational awareness (e.g., including aircraft position, altitude, speed, status and operation of aircraft systems, …).
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Strict adherence to suitable standard operating procedures (SOPs) and normal checklists is an effective method to prevent or mitigate crew errors, anticipate or manage operational threats; and enhance ground / flight operations safety.
- Standard Operating Procedures Compliance
- Adhering to standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a personal quality that can profoundly influence flight safety. This briefing note provides information every pilot should understand about the origin of SOPs and the critical importance of following them unfailingly during operations.
- Stress Fatigue
- Relaxation strategies, including ''sleep hygiene'' regular bedtime rituals that help put the mind at ease are useful for many. And the environment in which sleep takes place can make a large difference, for good or bad. Exercise and diet can also play an important role in obtaining restful sleep.
- Surviving Cabin Decompression
- The immediate donning of oxygen masks by the flight crew is the essential first step after an airplane loses cabin pressure at a high altitude.
- Take-off performance calculation and entry errors - A global perspective
- Everyday errors such as incorrectly transcribing or inadvertently dialling a wrong telephone number normally have minimal consequences. For high capacity aircraft operation, the consequence of such errors can be significant. There have been numerous take-off accidents worldwide that were the result of a simple data calculation or entry error by the flight crew. This report documents 20 international and 11 Australian accidents and incidents (occurrences) identified between 1 January 1989 and 30 June 2009 where the calculation and entry of erroneous take-off performance parameters, such as aircraft weights and V speeds were involved
- The Barn Door Effect
- An article about pilots propensity to continue approaches to land when closer to convective weather than they would wish to get while en route
- The Black Hole Approach
- ''Black hole'' approaches posed a significant hazard to airlines during the 1970s. Since then, a number of advances - ground proximity warning systems, the successful push to have VASI and ILS systems installed on more air carrier runways, and head-up displays - have greatly reduced the incidence of ''black hole'' approach incidents and accidents among carriers flying large jet aircraft. Pilots of regional airlines, however, typically fly more total approaches, more ''black hole'' approaches, and more approaches to runways without vertical guidance. All pilots may benefit from this review of ''black hole'' approaches - especially the explanation of why pilots may be lured into flying into terrain or obstacles despite having the runway in sight throughout the approach.
- The Importance of Sterile Cockpit
- In 1981, additional U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Regulations were enacted to reduce accidents by prohibiting non-essential crew activities during critical phases of flight. A recent review of anonymous reports suggests that non-compliance remains a problem.
- The Proper Use Of Checklists
- Some years ago, there have been two very serious airplane accidents which were caused by the flight crew attempting to takeoff with the wing flaps retracted. There are, of course, many examples of improper use of checklists related in this very interesting document...
- The Result Of Poor Cockpit Discipline
- Poor cockpit discipline, nonstandard phraseology and poor radio communications technique, nonadherence to company procedures, limited crew experience and inadequate training were among the facts cited in the Portuguese controlled-flight-into-terrain accident report.
- The Role Of Human Factors In Improving Safety
- Human error has been documented as a primary contributor to more than 70 percent of commercial airplane hull-loss accidents. While typically associated with flight operations, human error has also recently become a major concern in maintenance practices and air traffic management. Boeing human factors professionals work with engineers, pilots, and mechanics to apply the latest knowledge about the interface between human performance and commercial airplanes to help operators improve safety and efficiency in their daily operations.
- The Science of Fatigue
- Regulators see a large role for non traditional methods of miigating fatigue and preventing fatigue- related accidents.
- Threat & Error Management - How to understand it properly
- Threat and error management (TEM) offers an intuitive and flexible approach to practical risk management. It has been originally developed by human factors researchers at the University of Texas (USA). The Threat and Error Management (TEM) model is a conceptual framework that assists in understanding, from an operational perspective, the inter-relationship between safety and human performance in dynamic and challenging operational contexts.
- Threat and error management (TEM)
- Threat and error management (TEM) is an overarching safety concept regarding aviation operations and human performance. TEM is not a revolutionary concept, but it evolved gradually, as a consequence of the constant drive to improve the margins of safety in aviation operations through the practical integration of Human Factors knowledge.
- Threat and Error Management (TEM) in Air Traffic Control
- The m a in obj ective of intr oducing the TEM framework to the Air Traffic Serv ices ( A TS) communit y in general, and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) co mm unit y in particular, is to enhance aviation safety and efficiency.
- Unruly Passengers
- Unruly passenger behavior continues to be one of the biggest issues facing airlines and the severity of the problem continues to increase. Although much has been said about dealing with these cases there has been little reference to the causes. Sarah-Jane Prew, the publisher of
- What Makes A Pilot Street Smart About Flying
- By street smart, we mean: awareness of the essential aspects of flying; ability to know where and when to find critical information; ability to detect and compensate for the mistakes of others; ability to avoid the subtle traps and pitfalls found in the flying environment; and ability to complete a 30-year career without any accidents or serious incidents.
- What were they thinking?
- When flights go smoothly, pilots minds tend to wander, study finds.
- Words Than Can Be Hazardous To Your Health
- Miscommunication arising from spoken interaction is a fact of life experienced, in one form or another, almost daily. Even two people speaking face-to-face, ostensibly in the same language, with a common background in the subject of the communication, frequently discover that what was meant was not what was understood. In casual discussion or routine business situations, the results of such miscommunication can range from amusement to expensive errors. But in aviation, the outcome of spoken miscommunication can be deadly. In no area is this more true than in pilot-Air Traffic Control (ATC) interaction.
- Meteorology
- back to the top
- A Description of Convective Weather Containing Ice Crystals Associated with Engine Power loss and Damage
- This presentation is intended to enhance pilotsawareness of ice crystal icing conditions where engine events have occurred
- An Overview of NASA Engine Ice-Crystal Icing Research
- Ice accretions that have formed inside gas turbine engines as a result of flight in clouds of high concentrations of ice crystals in the atmosphere have recently been identified as an aviation safety hazard. NASAs Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) has made plans to conduct research in this area to address the hazard. This paper gives an overview of NASAs engine ice-crystal icing research project plans. Included are the rationale, approach, and details of various aspects of NASAs research.
- Avoiding Convective Weather Linked to Ice-Crystal Icing
- Understanding the weather conditions that have been linked to ice-crystal icing can help pilots avoid situations that may put airplane engines at risk for power loss and damage.
- Caution Lightning
- Lightning is the personal signature of thunderstorm. It is beautiful,inspiring, spectacular and...lethal
- Cold Weather Operations by Airbus
- A reminder of Impact on the Fuel System and Dispatch
- Cosmic Radiations
- Crew members who regularly fly at high cruise altitudes receive higher levels of ionizing radiation than the general population. The increased risk appears to be slight, but greater attention is being focused on monitoring of, and education about, ionizing radiation.
- Cosmic Radiations by Airbus
- This Airbus document deals with cosmic radiations coping with myths and realities of cosmic radiation. It has published in 2003 during the 12th Performance & Operations conference in Rome.
- Engine Power Loss in Ice Crystal Conditions
- High-altitude ice crystals in convective weather are now recognized as a cause of engine damage and engine power loss that affects multiple models of commercial airplanes and engines. These events typically have occurred in conditions that appear benign to pilots, including an absence of airframe icing and only light turbulence. The engines in all events have recovered to normal thrust response quickly. Research is being conducted to further understand these events. Normal thunderstorm avoidance procedures may help pilots avoid regions of high ice crystal content.
- Flight In severe Turbulence
- A turbulence encounter is a play featuring three characters: the atmosphere, the aircraft and the pilot (whether a human pilot or an auto-pilot). The purpose of the Airbus article is to review the respective role and contribution of these three actors, through the main aspects associated with flying in severe turbulence at altitude.
- Freezing Rain as an In Flight Icing Hazard
- The NASA Twin Otter Icing Research Aircraft experienced a prolonged exposure to "classical" Freezing Rain that formed extensive ice formations including ridges and nodules on the wing and tail, and resulted in a substantial performance penalty. Although the case study provides only a singular FZRA event with one aircraft type, it is clear that classical FZRA can pose a significant in-flight icing hazard, and should not be ignored when considering Supercooled Large Drop issues.
- Getting To Grips With Cold Weather Operations
- The purpose of this document is to provide Airbus operators with an understanding of Airbus aircraft operations in cold weather conditions, and address such aspects as aircraft contamination, performance on contaminated runways, fuel freezing limitations and altimeter corrections. This brochure summarizes information contained in several Airbus Industrie documents and provides related recommendations.
- Hot Weather Operations by Airbus
- Airbus procedures in hot weather and sandy conditions.
- Lighting Strikes
- Realistic lighting conditions are crucial to tests of the readability of flight deck displays.
- National Volcanic Ash Operations Plan For Aviation
- This document provides information on how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as the U.S. meteorological authority with regard to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), meets its obligations to the International Airways Volcano Watch (IAVW), which is sponsored by ICAO.
- Power Loss in Ice Crystal Conditions
- Ice crystals (frozen water) associated with convective clouds can form ice in the engine core, where temperatures are initially warmer than freezing. Ice shedding can cause engine power loss (surge, flameout) and damage.
- The Ice Crystal Weather Threat to Engines
- High-altitude ice crystals in convective weather are now recognized to be a cause of engine damage and engine power-loss
- The Risk Of Microburst
- Flight Crew of a DC-10 Encounters Microburst During Unstabilized Approach, Ending in Runway Accident
- Thunderstorms kill!
- Thunderstorms kill. They kill with wind, rain, ice, hail, lightning, downbursts
- Turbulence Education and Training Aid
- The Turbulence Education and Training Aid was developed by an industry team consisting of participants from airlines, airplane manufacturers, and the FAA to provide a means for the reduction of injuries and damage caused by turbulence encounters. The training package consists of this document and an accompanying. Turbulence is the leading cause of injury in non-fatal accidents...
- Volcanic Ash Avoidance
- A commercial aircraft encounter with volcanic Ash can threaten safety of flight because of resulting conditions that can range from windshield pitting to loss of thrust in all engines. Developments in technology and communication networks have significantly decreased the probability of such an encounter in the last several years. Despite these developments, however, a 737-700 recently flew through a volcanic ash cloud. Updated information about advancements in ensuring safe operations and minimizing damage to the airplane during a volcanic ash encounter is now available to flight crews.
- Volcanic Ash Awareness
- The aim of this Briefing is to provide information about volcanic ash effects on aircraft, and operational guidelines, in order to help preventing a volcanic ash cloud encounter.
- Volcanic Ash Danger to Aircraft In The North Pacific
- The worlds busy air traffic corridors pass over hundreds of volcanoes capable of sudden, explosive eruptions. In the United States alone, aircraft carry many thousands of passengers and millions of dollars of cargo over volcanoes each day. Volcanic ash can be a serious hazard to aviation even thousands of miles from an eruption. Airborne ash can diminish visibility, damage flight control systems, and cause jet engines to fail. USGS and other scientists with the Alaska Volcano Observatory are playing a leading role in the international effort to reduce the risk posed to aircraft by volcanic eruptions.
- Weather Conditions Associated with Jet Engine Power Loss and Damage due to Ingestion of Ice Particles
- The aviation industry has now connected a number of jet engine power-loss and damage events to the ingestion of ice particles. Ice particle icing related jet engine power-loss and damage events are occurring during flights of large transport aircraft, commuter, and business jets. These events have only recently been recognized as occurring in regions of ice particles aloft within convective clouds. The events have included engine surge, stall, flameout and rollback, as well as engine compressor damage due to ice shedding. All have been shown to have occurred during flight near convective weather mostly at high altitude.
- Whiteout!
- White sky and white ground, no shadow and no horizon set you up for CFIT
- Wind Gradients and Turbulence
- This document presents four events linked to meteorological phenomena, strong winds at altitude or convective movements associated with cumulonimbus. Although different in nature, these examples have some common points: the sudden deterioration of the conditions, late detection, sometimes inappropriate reactions, lack of information transfer within flight crews (PIREP). Since they are difficult to characterize in flight and meteorological forecasts are often inaccurate, these phenomena can be underestimated and poorly managed. Making those involved more aware, in-flight updating of information allowing for better anticipation and increased vigilance when approaching areas of risk can all help flight crews to avoid or to reduce the effects.
- Navigation & ATC
- back to the top
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 01
- Follow the RA!
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 02
- RAs and 1000 ft level-off manoeuvres
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 03
- Wrong reaction to ''Adjust Vertical Speed''
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 04
- TCAS II and VFR traffic
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 05
- Controller and Pilot ACAS regulation and training
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 06
- Incorrect use of the TCAS traffic display
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 07
- Dos and Don'ts of TCAS II Operations
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 08
- TCAS II Operations in European RVSM Airspace
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 09
- Frequently Asked Questions
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 10
- When ATC meets TCAS II
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 11
- ACAS world is moving on
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 12
- Focus On Pilot Training
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 13
- Reversing to Resolve
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 14
- Version 7.1 is Coming
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 15
- Not So Fast
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 16
- TCAS Traffic Advisories
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 17
- Level Off RA
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 18
- Notable recent operational events
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 19
- Interactions flight crew
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 20
- Low Level events
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 21
- Bizjet
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 22
- ATC instructions
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 23
- Equipment matters
- ACAS Bulletin Nr 24
- Investigating RAs
- Common Conceptual Model Approach To Vertical Navigation Automation
- Applying a common conceptual model approach to vertical navigation automation. A publication from the International Center for Air Transportation Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (USA).
- Constant-angle non precision approach
- CDFA is a technique, consistent with stabilized approach procedures, for flying the final approach segment of a non-precision approach (NPA) procedure as a constant descent, without level-off, from an altitude at or above the final approach fix altitude to a point approximately 15 m (50 ft) height above the landing runway threshold or the point where the flare manoeuvre should begin for the type of aircraft flown.
- Continuous Descent Arrivals
- The US FAA reviews the concept of a CDA approach: a flight procedure where the vertical profile of an arrival has been optimized so that it can be flown with engines “idle” from a high altitude (potentially from cruise) until touch down on the runway.
- Correcting The Effect of Magnetic Variation
- Airlines should make sure they update their inertial reference systems to the latest magnetic variation (MagVar) tables in order to avoid potentially hazardous magnetic heading-related navigation errors
- Getting to grips with ETOPS
- The purpose of this Airbus brochure is to provide Airbus operators with: the currently applicable ETOPS regulations, as published in the various relevant circulars, and the agreed interpretations thereto, which have been defined in the frame of the JAA/FAA Harmonization Committee.
- Getting to grips with FANS
- The purpose of this Airbus brochure is to provide Airbus Industrie aircraft operators with the agreed interpretations of the currently applicable CNS/ATM (i.e. FANS) regulations.
- Getting To Grips with Modern Navigation
- The purpose of this brochure is to provide Airbus aircraft Operators with the agreed interpretations of the currently applicable RNP and RVSM and RNAV regulations.
- Getting To Grips With RNP AR
- The Performance Based Navigation concept allows to optimize the instrument procedure design with the aircraft navigation performance. This concept is used en route, to reduce aircraft separation, and in terminal area to optimize arrival and departure procedures. The utmost development of Performance Based Navigation for approach, missed approach and departure is known under different names. FAA initially referred to RNP SAAAR Operations, SAAAR standing for Special Aircraft and Aircrew Authorization Required. ICAO now refers to RNP Operations with Authorization Required (RNP AR). This brochure aims at providing Airbus customers with the background information necessary to launch an RNP AR project.
- HF Guidance
- Everything is said in the title...
- How VNAV Works
- What is VNAV and how it works: another interesting document from Boeing
- IATA IFBP
- What you should know about IATA In-flight Broadcast Procedure (IFBP).
- Introduction To Navigation
- This introduction to Navigation covers Methods & equipment, procedures, Navigation and the FMC.
- John Bells VNAV Whiz Wheel
- The VNAV Whiz Wheel was developed by an active airline captain to make descent planning easier on non-VNAV aircraft such as the B737-200 or B727.
- North Atlantic Operations & Airpace Manual - 2016
- Note that the ''NAT HLA Airspace'' is a re-designation of the airspace formerly known as the �North Atlantic Minimum Navigational Performance Specifications Airspace (NAT MNPSA)� but excludes those portions of SHANWICK OCA which form the SOTA and BOTA areas and includes the BODO OCEANIC FIR. This re-designation is the third of the milestones of the �MNPS to PBN Transition Plan� for the North Atlantic Region and is effective from 04 February 2016.
- Pilots and ATC Communications
- English is the international language of aviation. But even when pilots and controllers both speak English fluently, there are pitfalls in the nature of language and the ways that language is heard. Subtle miscues can subvert messages that seem clear to the sender. Pilots and controllers must be aware of, and avoid, common types of linguistic misunderstandings. Ultimately, an intelligent voice interface may cut through confusion.
- Polar Operations
- This Boeing document provides some information needed to implement safe and efficient Polar Operations.
- Polar Routes
- This Boeing document provides some information to better understand safe and efficient Polar Operations.
- Revision Of Rule for ETOPS and LROPS
- With very long-range airplanes such as the A340-500, an increasing number of flights will be conducted far away from regular diversion airports. Alternate airports along new routes like the Polar and Arctic route systems are subject to the most extreme weather conditions and would require special precautions.
- RNP In Daily Operations
- This document has been published by Westjet and is well illustrated.
- RVSM Heightens Need for Precision in Altitude Measurement
- Technological advances have honed the accuracy of aircraft altimeters, but false indications still can occur at any altitude or flight level. Some involve limitations of the altimeters themselves, but most are associated with the ‘weak link’ in altimetry — the human.
- Standard Calls
- Standard phraseology is essential to ensure effective crew communication, particularly in today's operating environment, which increasingly features Two-crewmember operation and, International / worldwide contexts involving crewmembers with different native languages.
- Vertical Situation Display For Improved Flight Safety
- Boeing has developed a vertical situation display to help prevent controlled flight into terrain and approach and landing accidents. In addition, the vertical situation display is designed to reduce airline operating costs by decreasing the number of missed approaches, tail strikes, and hard landings and by reducing vertical navigation training time.
- Vulnerabilities Warrant Attention as Satellite based Navigation Grows
- The International Civil Aviation Organization and other authorities recommend backup inertial-reference systems, ground-based navaids, and radar surveillance and vectoring to mitigate interference — unintentional and intentional — with navigation signals from space. Improved satellites and augmentation systems will help to lessen risks under instrument flight rules.
- What is PRNAV ?
- Precision-RNAV (P-RNAV) is the natural progression from Basic RNAV (B-RNAV) which became mandatory in European Airspace in April 1998 for en-route operations. Initial application is in the Terminal Area and P-RNAV track keeping equates to cross track accuracy of RNP 1 ( or - 1NM). P-RNAV procedures are designed to a common set of design principles specific to RNAV equipped aircraft. These P-RNAV procedures will replace the wide variation of RNAV procedures in European ECAC Terminal Airspace that do not have a common basis.
- Safety
- back to the top
- Advancements In Overhead Stowage Bin Article Retention
- The retention of passenger baggage in airplane stowage bins during flight is of industrywide interest.
- Aging Transport Systems Investigation
- The U.S. FAA and industry representatives are working together to determine how existing maintenance practices may be improved to help ensure the continued airworthiness of older airplanes. Although factfinding efforts to date have found no endemic safety issues, recommendations are being made to enhance the design and maintenance of airplane electrical systems and associated documentation and training.
- Airbus Takeoff Safety Training Aid
- The purpose of this brochure is to provide the Airlines with Airbus data to be used in conjunction with the TAKEOFF SAFETY TRAINING AID published by the Federal Aviation Administration. Airframe manufacturer's, Airlines, Pilot groups, and regulatory agencies have developed this training resource dedicated to reducing the number of rejected takeoff (RTO) accidents.
- Analysis of fumes and smoke events in Australian aviation
- This study has been undertaken in order to further understanding of the nature and impact of fumes and smoke related occurrences in relation to the safety of aircraft operations in Australia and, in doing so, evaluate associated data availability and suitability. This report also addresses recommendations from a 2011 report commissioned by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) by an Expert Panel on Aircraft Air Quality that aviation safety agencies work together to provide a comprehensive study of cabin air contamination incidents.
- Antidepressants in Aviation
- Use of antidepressant medications by pilots and air traffic controllers does not increase the risk of aviation accidents or incidents, according to a study of 10 years of aviation safety data from Australia, where aeromedical authorities have allowed the supervised use of antidepressants since 1987.
- Birdstrike Threat
- Todays wildlife strike problem has a storied history.
- Birdstrike Threat Awareness
- Experience shows that birdstrike events are common. Pilots may expect to encounter from two to five birdstrikes during their career.
- Bracing The Last Line Of Defense against Midair Collisions
- Recent accidents have prompted the International Civil Aviation Organization to clarify that pilots must comply immediately with airborne collision avoidance system resolution advisories, even when contradictory instructions are issued by air traffic control.
- Cabin Decompressions Awareness
- The objectives of this briefing is to review the different types of decompression and enhance cabin and flight crew awareness of the importance of rapidly taking appropriate actions to successfully manage decompression.
- Cabin Safety Effects of PEDs
- Social media pressures and expanded use of portable electronic devices disrupt conventional cabin safety.
- Can They Talk The Talk
- Just because pilots claim English as a native language, that doesnt mean their aviation English is up to par.
- CFIT Business Jet Operations
- Loss of control was the second leading cause of fatal business jet accidents worldwide from 1991 through 2002. Inadequate crew coordination and monitoring were cited in the majority of business jet incidents
- CFIT Check list
- The Flight Safety Foundation CFIT Checklist helps pilots and aircraft operators assess the CFIT risk for specific flights.
- CFIT Digest
- Flight Safety Foundation task force presents facts about approach-and-landing and Controlled-Flight-Into-Terrain (CFIT) accidents.
- Charts raise Pilot Awareness Of Minimum Vectoring Altitudes
- At least 158 paper charts published by 34 civil aviation authorities currently provide advisory information about minimum vectoring altitudes to pilots. Newly released data for 374 U.S. MVA charts should encourage development of electronic versions that will help to prevent controlled flight into terrain.
- Cockpit and Cabin Smoke Procedures
- The objective of this presentation is to review the latest Airbus developments on the topic, recall the Cockpit/Cabin Smoke Procedure Philosophy, outline the recommendations of the Airbus “Smoke” Working Group, and how they will be incorporated in the smoke procedures.
- Cosmic Radiation
- Crew members who regularly fly at high cruise altitudes receive higher levels of ionizing radiation than the general population. The increased risk appears to be slight, but greater attention is being focused on monitoring of, and education about, ionizing radiation.
- Culture Counts
- The importance of establishing and maintaining a positive safety culture and climate in any aviation organization is now beyond debate. But little attention has been paid to measuring an organizations safety environment, an omission that is important because, as business schools preach, you cant manage what you cant measure.
- Danger of Falling Overhead Baggage
- Minimal traumatic brain injury is one serious consequence of injury caused by baggage falling from overhead compartments. Between 20 percent and 60 percent of such patients have symptoms three months after being injured.
- Darkness Increases Risks of Flight
- Human perceptual limitations are blamed for specific types of accidents that are more likely to occur in darkness than in daylight. Special hazards associated with night flying continue to cause accidents despite efforts to inform pilots of the risks.
- Emergency Evacuation On Ground
- New procedures presented by Airbus.
- Enhancing Terrain Awareness
- This briefing provides a set of operational recommendations and training guidelines to establish and maintain the desired level of terrain awareness.
- Erroneous ILS Indications Pose Risk of CFIT
- Several incidents involved flight crews who observed normal, on-course instrument landing system (ILS) indications although their aircraft were not established on the glideslope or on the localizer course.
- Factors to Consider Before an Emergency Evacuation
- Flight crews must consider many factors in deciding whether to order an evacuation.
- Flightcrew response to In-Flight Smoke, Fire, or Fumes
- Smoke, fire, or fume (SFF) events can occur suddenly in commercial airplanes. Yet information about the source of the event may be vague, incomplete, inaccurate, or contradictory. Additionally, there is a wide range of possible sources and situations.
- Getting To Grips With Cabin Safety
- This Airbus brochure is a comprehensive review of Cabin Crew Emergency Procedures, incorporating Fire, Smoke, Emergency Evacuation, Ditching, Cabin Depressurization and Crew Resource Management. The aim of “Getting to Grips with Cabin Safety” is to provide Operators with guidance to develop procedures to implement their own cabin safety program, which is customized to the Operator’s specific requirements.
- Glideslope Unusable
- It took a moment, at a bad time, for the pilots to decipher an unexpected and unuasual clearance
- GPWS Safety Alert
- An FSF CFIT Safety Alert distributed to thousands of operators worldwide, emphasizes the importance of an immediate and decisive response by flight crews to ground-proximity warning system (GPWS) warnings.
- High Stakes in language Proficiency
- In an effort to reduce accidents involving communication deficiencies, ICAO is requiring pilots, controllers and aeronautical station operators involved in international operations to be tested for their ability to speak and understand English. At stake are careers, industry investment in training and testing — and safety.
- Identified Threats when Transitioning from IMC to VMC
- The pilots were looking out the windshield, anticipating visual contact with the runway, when the A300 descended below minimums at Birmingham.
- Inflight Fire - Important to React Quickly
- Within 15 minutes of receiving indications of a fire on the main cargo deck the night of July 28, 2011, the flight crew of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter found that they could neither reach a nearby airport nor conduct a controlled ditching in the Yellow Sea below
- Language Barrier
- After a simple error wiped out much of their navigation information, the Polish pilots of a 737 were unable to adequately communicate their problem to British controllers
- Lessons from the Dawn of Ultra Long Range Flight
- Validation studies of nonstop flights between Singapore and the United States show that recommended operational guidelines developed by Flight Safety Foundation can help airlines worldwide to expand their operational envelope while maintaining safety.
- Lithium Batteries - Risk Mitigation Guidance for Operators
- This guide is designed to outline potential strategies airlines may wish to consider to reduce the risks associated with the transport of lithium batteries. These strategies address the carriage of lithium batteries as cargo on passenger and cargo aircraft as well as in passenger and crew checked and carry-on baggage.
- Managing Uneven Brakes Temperature
- Operators typically purchase twin-aisle airplanes for long-distance flights. However, when market conditions dictate, operators may use some of these airplanes on shorter flights. In such instances, appropriate action by the flight crew can reduce the likelihood of brake overheating and concomitant departure delays.
- Margin for Error
- Airplanes continue to run off the ends of runways lacking adequate overrun areas with disastrous consequences, yet acceptance of a unified standard for overrun areas and installation of safety areas where they are needed generally remain slow. Civil aviation authorities worldwide appear to have given a mixed reception to recent changes in international airport design requirements intended to prevent or reduce damage and injury during overrun on takeoff or landing.
- Minimizing the Impact Runway Arresting Systems
- Many airports throughout the world have joint commercial-military operations. Runways at these airports often are equipped with arresting gear systems for tactical military aircraft to use for landing. These systems pose a potential damage and safety hazard to commercial airplanes that use the same runways. Airports and airlines can take steps to help ensure safe commercial operations under such circumstances. Measures include writing airport procedures specifically for commercial airplane operations, modifying existing arresting systems, reducing declared landing and takeoff distances, and increasing inspections of airplanes with nosegear spray and gravel deflectors.
- Missed Assessment
- Tired pilots neglecte to perform a required review before landing
- Never Cross Red
- Exceptions to a global rule weaken the effectiveness of the stop bar as a last defense against runway incursions.
- Preventing Landings without clearance
- A great many reports to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System identify pilots' failure to obtain clearances prior to landing. How to prevent Landings without Clearance?
- Preventing Runway Incursions
- The objective of this Briefing Note is to provide awareness of a runway incursion, the associated contributing factors and, related prevention strategies, especially in terms of best practices for flight crew to avoid runway incursions.
- Protecting Airline Personnel From Falls
- Open doors, access panels, and hatches on parked airplanes can be potential safety hazards for airline personnel unaware of the opening. Flight attendants and servicing staff have suffered injuries as a result of falls through these openings. Investigations of these accidents by Boeing indicate that they are preventable by proper and consistent use of barriers and following airline policies and procedures.
- Reducing Smoke and Burning Odor Events
- At the recommendation of operators, Boeing has undertaken studies of smoke and burning odor (SBO) events occurring on airplanes. The studies provide fleetwide information so that operators can take steps to reduce SBO events.
- Reducing the threat of laser illuminations
- Laser illumination of commercial airplanes is a growing threat to operational safety, and the number of incidents is increasing. the u.S. Federal aviation administration (FAA) laser- incident database contains more than 3,200 reports of incidents since 2004 and provides information on the locations, altitudes, color of light, and phases of flight that show the most activity. by knowing how the laser affects the eye and following recommended procedures, pilots can reduce this safety threat.
- Refuelling With Passengers On Board
- This Airbus Briefing is designed to provide all personnel, involved in refueling operations, with an overview of the applicable recommendations.
- Response To Inflight Smoke
- Engineering design by airplane manufacturers, oversight by regulators, and maintenance practices by operators combine to minimize occurrences of smoke, fumes, and fire in the pressurized areas of airplanes. When smoke does occur, timely and appropriate action by the flight and cabin crews is imperative. Boeing has analyzed in-service smoke, fumes, and fire events and reviewed airplane systems and crew procedures for its commercial airplane models
- Revisiting The STOP or GO Decision
- The aim of thus Briefing is to review the STOP or GO decision-making process, and the associated operational and prevention strategies to be applied, in order to limit the risks of taking inappropriate actions and unsafe decisions.
- Risks related to Lithium Batteries
- Lithium-ion (Li-ion) has become the dominant rechargeable battery chemistry for consumer electronics devices (e.g., smart phones and notebook computers) and is poised to become commonplace for industrial, transportation, and power-storage applications. From a safety and fire protection standpoint, a high energy density coupled with a flammable organic, rather than traditional aqueous electrolyte, has created a number of new fire protection challenges. Specific challenges include the design of batteries containing Li-ion cells, the storage and handling of these batteries, and challenges in determining the best response to suppress and control fires involving Li-ion batteries.
- Safe Winter Operations
- Airline engineering, maintenance, and flight personnel, as well as contracted airplane deicing service providers, need to be aware of the recent developments and recommendations for operating airplanes in winter weather conditions.
- Safety on the Straight and Narrow
- Aviation safety experts aim for the Runway Safety Initiative to provide the tools to prevent runway excursions.
- Sharing The Skies
- This Transport Canada document is a crucial tool for managing hazardous interactions between wildlife and aircraft in the vicinity of airports. For example, some land-use activities near airports—such as waste-disposal sites—attract high-risk bird species and, therefore, directly impact aviation safety. Transport Canada strives for the holistic, proactive management of wildlife hazards by applying the system safety approach to engage all airport-area stakeholders, including community leaders, waste-disposal companies, farmers, airport authorities and airline operators.
- Smoke Fire Fume Initiative
- Boeing reminds that Smoke, fire, fumes events occur daily in commercial aircraft...
- Speaking Up
- Voluntary safety reports by flight attendants prove to be more valuable than expected
- Stabilized Approach and Flare Are Keys to Avoiding Hard Landings
- Flight crews primarily use their judgment to identify and report hard landings, but recorded flight data also might be useful to gauge the severity of the impact before a conditional maintenance inspection is performed. The accident record shows that hard landings often involve substantial damage and sometimes result in fatalities.
- The Continuous Threat of Runway Incursions
- Another interesting article dealing with runway incursions...
- Tools For The Reduction Of Approach and Landing Accidents
- Data from numerous safety studies indicate that approach and landing accidents account for a significant proportion of air transport accidents. The aviation industry is committed to reducing the number of these accidents. One effort has led to the creation of a toolkit containing industry data and recommendations for use by airlines worldwide.
- Treacherous Thawing
- Slush may induce poor/nil aircraft braking action, contrary to runway friction readings.
- Visual Illusions Awareness and Avoidance
- Visual illusions take place when conditions modify the pilot’s perception of the environment relative to his / her expectations. Visual illusions may result in landing short of the runway, hard landing or runway overrun, but may also cause spatial disorientation and loss of control.
- Systems & instruments
- back to the top
- A319 320 321 Flight Deck and Systems Briefing for Pilots
- Airborne Weather Radar Interpretation
- This familiarisation is targeted for aircraft equipped with Honeywell weather radar. The fundamental principles are, however, applicable to all weather radars in all aircraft.
- Airbus A340 Technical Differences
- This brochure describes the various differences between each member of the A340 Family: The A340-200/300/500/600.
- Airbus Flight Control Checks
- Typical flight control events for all Airbus series.
- Aircraft Fumigation
- Operators sometimes report cases of aircraft infestation by rodents such as mice and rats, and reptiles such as snakes and lizards, causing discomfort and alarm amongst passengers and crew, but also potentially considerable damage to the aircraft. Their presence in an aircraft can lead in extreme cases to the aircraft being grounded, especially when electrical wiring damage has been discovered. This Airbus document explains how fumigation works.
- Altimeter Setting and Use Of Radioaltimeter
- Operators with international routes are exposed to different standards in terms of:
- Dunlop Aircraft Tyres
- This manual includes general maintenance and servicing procedures applicable to aircraft tyres which Dunlop Aircraft Tyres Limited (DATL) make and supply.
- Electromagnetic Interference
- A good study of the electromagnetic interferences caused by portable electronic devices (laptops, PDAs, Electronic games, cell phones, etc.)
- Engineering Aspects of Cabin Air Quality
- This Boeing document discusses engineering aspects of a modern commercial jet airliner environmental control system (ECS), focusing on cabin air quality. News media coverage suggests that aircraft cabin air quality is a serious concern. However, an objective review of pertinent data and comprehensive testing do not support this perception.
- Erroneous Flight Instrument Information
- Simple needle, ball, and airspeed flight information has been replaced by aural, visual, and tactile warnings incorporated into modern flight decks to alert flight crews when certain airplane parameters are exceeded. However, to prevent airplane accidents or incidents, flight crews need to know how to react properly when they encounter contradictory flight deck information or lose a significant amount of this information because of instrument failure.
- Erroneous Flight Instruments Indications
- reventable accidents and incidents related to erroneous flight instrument information continue to occur despite improvements in system reliability, redundancy, and technology. In particular, modern flight instruments provide more information to the flight crew with greater precision. Flight crews seldom are confronted with instrument problems; however, when these problems do occur, their rarity can make the situation worse. To overcome the potential problems associated with infrequent failures, flight crews should be aware of the piloting techniques summarized in this article, follow the guidance described in operations and training manuals, and comply with airline training when facing a flight instrument anomaly.
- Flight Crew Reliance On Automation
- Modern large transport aircraft have an increasing amount of automation and crews are placing greater reliance on this automation. Consequently, there is a risk that flight crew no longer have the necessary skills to react appropriately to either failures in automation, programming errors or a loss of situational awareness. Dependence on automatics could lead to crews accepting what the aircraft was doing without proper monitoring. Crews of highly automated aircraft might lose their manual flying skills, and there is a risk of crews responding inappropriately to failures. This preliminary report is intended to provide clarification of areas of concern.
- Fuel Imbalance
- In-flight fuel imbalance occurs when the quantity of fuel between the fuel tanks in the left and right wings is unequal. A fuel imbalance can occur for many reasons, including acceptable variations in the performance of fuel system components, variations in engine fuel burn characteristics, faults in internal fuel system components, or fuel system or structural faults that cause fuel to leak overboard. Operators can avoid unnecessary dispatch delays and maintenance work by understanding the causes of in-flight fuel imbalance, proper fuel management, fuel imbalance indication, and airplane dispatch procedures following the display of fuel imbalance indications.
- Getting to Grips with MMEL and MEL
- The MMEL and the MEL are both designed to ensure that an acceptable level of safety is respected, when an aircraft is dispatched with inoperative equipment. The MEL enables Operators to rapidly dispatch an aircraft, and avoid unnecessary delays or flight cancellations, without sacrificing safety. Both the MMEL and the MEL are legal documents that are either approved or accepted by Airworthiness Authorities. The MMEL and the MEL consist of component and system lists that are attributed a ''GO'', ''GO IF'', or ''NO GO'' status, depending on their impact on the safety of a flight.
- Hazards Of Erroneous Glide Slope Indications
- All airplanes equipped with instrument landing systems are vulnerable to capturing erroneous glideslope signals. Boeing, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration are working together to improve awareness and prevent such errors. Flight crews can help manage the risk by understanding the problem and performing glideslope confidence checks.
- Head Up Display by Airbus
- The digital Head Up Display is also available for Airbus aircraft...
- In Flight Vibration
- Modern commercial jet airplanes provide smooth, comfortable travel that typically is free of vibration.
- Inflight PTU Logic by Airbus
- Airbus provides an Update of in-flight PTU logic for Single Aisle Aircraft.
- Interference From Portable Electronic Devices
- This is a second article dealing with Electromagnetic Interference from portable electronic devices. Operators of commercial airplanes have reported numerous cases of portable electronic devices affecting airplane systems during flight. These devices, including laptop and palmtop computers, audio players/recorders, electronic games, cell phones, compact-disc players, electronic toys, and laser pointers, have been suspected of causing such anomalous events as autopilot disconnects, erratic flight deck indications, airplanes turning off course, and uncommanded turns. Boeing has recommended that devices suspected of causing these anomalies be turned off during critical stages of flight (takeoff and landing).
- Michelin Care and Service Manual
- This manual is designed as a guide to the procedures to be used for all aspects of aircraft tire care and operation. It provides detailed information about how to operate aircraft tires to achieve optimum service. It also covers installation, removal and servicing techniques. It should be used in conjunction with the operating procedures given by the aircraft and wheel manufacturers.
- Normal Check Lists
- This briefing provides an overview of the scope and use of normal checklists, and the factors and conditions that may affect the normal flow and completion of normal checklists.
- Optimum Use Of Automation
- The term ''optimum use of automation'' used in this Airbus document refers to the integrated and coordinated use of the following systems:
- Optimum Use Of The Weather radar
- The aim of this Briefing Note is to provide additional information about weather radar capabilities and limitations, in order to improve the flight crew's overall understanding of the system, and to help prevent such incidents from occurring.
- Optimum Use of Weather Radar - Airbus Safety First Nr22
- In recent years, there have been a number of flights where passengers or crew suffered injuries due to severe turbulence. In some other instances, the aircraft structure was substantially damaged following a hailstorm encounter. Clearly adverse weather can pose a threat to the safe and comfortable completion of a flight, thus it needs to be detected and avoided in a timely manner.
- Protections Against Fuel Vapor Ignitions
- This document is a very interesting technical explanation of the potential fuel vapor ignition in case of a specific combination of several factors. This brochure has been released 2 years after the TWA 747 inflight explosion.
- Response To Stall Warning Activation On Takeoff
- This Airbus Flight Operations Briefing Note provides an overview of:
- Rudder and Loads
- This Airbus technical memo has been published short time after the crash of an American Airline A300-600 on takeoff from New-York
- Taxiing aircraft with engines stopped
- The idea to taxi aircraft without the main engine thrust is not recent. When Aerospatiales (one of Airbus founder partners) design office provided its conclusions on a study for motorized wheels for autonomous taxiing for a 76 tonnes subsonic aircraft back in 1977, the technology and oil prices were not at todays high level, making this idea a must to offer. As part of Airbus commitment to continuously improve its products and develop environmental-friendly solutions, Airbus Research and Technology program has revisited this case with various solutions in the recent years.
- TCAS Recommendations
- The onboard Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) was developed to prevent mid-air collision, particularly in case Air Traffic Controller guidance is incorrect. This Airbus document is an excelent TCAS summary for Airbus pilots (and also for the others...)
- Tire Burst
- Tire bursting incidents occur regularly.The Concorde accident raised the greatest concern. This Airbus document reviews the different tire technologies lead to different bursting behaviors.Airbus recommendations are numerous and helpful for safe day to day operations.
- Understanding Design Philosophy
- A set of guidelines or ''Golden Rules'' for the operation of automated systems can help crew members to remain fully aware of the status of the aircraft and its sophisticated systems ''ready to react'' should an unexpected or critical event arise.
- Use Of Radio Altimeter
- This briefing provides a review and discussion of the following aspects, highlighting the lessons learned from incidents / accidents (particularly during approach-and-landing): Barometric-altimeter reference (QNH or QFE), use of different units for altitude measurement and reading, Radio-altimeter callouts, and Low-OAT operation.
- Using HF
- High frequency (HF) radio is perhaps the oldest form of airborne radio communications. HF transceivers can provide an entire world of communications, options and challenges...
- What You Should Know About Tires
- This Manual is published by Goodyear and it will help you get maximum service life from your aircraft tires.
- Windshield Protection
- Windshield rain protection provides the flight crew with a clear vision through the aircraft windshield when rain is encountered. The “ Rainboe ” rain repellent fluid, originally used on Airbus aircraft in addition to the basic windshield wiper system, has been phased out as part of the worldwide effort to protect the Ozone layer. While Airbus has been actively working on alternative solutions, it has also published a well illustrated brochure to provide the operators a choice of environmentally friendly rain repellent fluid or windshield hydrophobic coating. This combines maximum windshield rain protection with safe guards for the environment.
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