Airbus Stick Technique

I normally write about ideas that apply to flying any aircraft. But today is different. This is Airbus specific. Very specific! Recently read a couple of peer-reviewed scientific research papers that do a great job parsing Airbus stick skills and fine-grain aircraft control. I’ve learnt some new things, confirmed some suspicions, but still have questions. The four topics are: Where to hold the side stick? Separate up/down and left/right inputs, or move the stick in 2-D? Aim for perfectly centered or smoothly tracking? What else did the researchers learn? The main research paper is Stirring the Pot: Comparing Stick Input … Continue reading Airbus Stick Technique

Fully Automatic?

Guess what year this newspaper article was published: 1946? 1976? 1996? 2016? Answer: Rain, Fog, Snow! Future Airliner to Go Right Thru: Automatic Devices Will Handle It. Chicago Daily Tribune. 6 June 1946. Yep! 1946. And the next year Time magazine reported on a military aircraft flying from Newfoundland to England under the control of an autopilot programmed on punched cards: “The plane behaved as if an invisible crew were working her controls. … The commanding robot was a snarl of electronic equipment affectionately known as “the Brain.” Everything it did on the long flight was “preset” before the start. … Continue reading Fully Automatic?

Chair Flying

I go back to airline flying next month. Been a long time. In my basement I have followed Space Shuttle Commander and test pilot instructor Rick Searfoss’s advice: “For best effect, chair flying even involves moving the hands as if you actually have a stick, throttle, and multiple switches in front of you. I went so far before my first space mission to set up a full-size paper copy of Columbia’s instrument panel in my home office. My kids laughed at Dad and his toy orbiter cockpit, but it aided in my preparation tremendously. Even to the present day, after I’ve flown … Continue reading Chair Flying