Opinions

roundout said:
Hey can y’all IOE instructors please tell FOs that they don’t need to smash the instinctive disconnect button 13 times to disconnect the autopilot? So annoying. Nonsensical. Poor airmanship. It’s like nails on a chalkboard.
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There was a thread on here where @BobDDuck pointed out doing that reactivates a deactivated side stick, which can make for some bad times if something had gone wonky with it.
 
JordanD said:
There was a thread on here where @BobDDuck pointed out doing that reactivates a deactivated side stick, which can make for some bad times if something had gone wonky with it.
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That’s true, though I’m guessing that if one particular side stick had been deactivated for insert reasons nobody would be using it to disconnect the autopilot, unless things had really gone pear shaped.

Edited because I’m in off work mode but not deleted so people can rightfully heckle me if they so choose
 
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roundout said:
That’s true, though I’m guessing that if one particular side stick had been deactivated for insert reasons nobody would be using it to disconnect the autopilot, unless things had really gone pear shaped.
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Can’t you reactivate it with either side stick?
 
roundout said:
I don’t want to seem ungrateful, because AA helped me evac from ATL amidst the holiday and snow/cold mess, but the FO on that 321 fired about 20 missiles down DFW 35R. What did 35R do to him? the world may never know.
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Too close to missles switching to guns. Also be a true westie and do the emergency cancel while you disconnect. #airbuscowboy
 
roundout said:
That’s true, though I’m guessing that if one particular side stick had been deactivated for insert reasons nobody would be using it to disconnect the autopilot, unless things had really gone pear shaped.
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JordanD said:
Can’t you reactivate it with either side stick?
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Yes. That's the issue. Pushing either stick's red button (when the autopilot isn't engaged) will reactivate the locked out side stick.
 
Stone Cold said:
The best part of those holdover times is moderate snow at night magically become heavy snow, with no holdover times. According to the notes, you’re not supposed to use the tower or ATIS measurement of snow at night, so there are no options. It gets fun in Anchorage this time of year.

I’ll just leave that conversation there without more comment.
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snowfall intensity as a function of prevailing visibility chart?
 
ZapBrannigan said:
Here’s an interesting one. We have an app we use to determine holdover times. It uses current weather, visibility, fluid type, etc to produce a holdover time and then includes a nice timer function.

Yesterday it came back with heavy snow. No holdover time. With a little note at the bottom that says (paraphrased), “No holdover time. Do cabins check within 5 minutes of takeoff.”

So let me get this straight. For light snow, we measure with a micrometer, and we calculate a holdover time down to the minute… but for heavy snow they’re like “F it. Send a dude back there to peek out the window that’s covered with precip and deice slime and if he’s mostly sure that the fluid is still working, blast off!”

Seems so sketchy to me. But that’s what we did.

I remember deicing in LGA back in the 90s and when the holdover time expired we got back in line for another spray. What happened in the last two decades that now it’s ok to cabin check and go? Or am I misremembering the circumstances?
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That 5 min check likely exists any time a HOT has been exceeded (with caveats for fzrain) so basically with heavy snow you’re skipping the HOT part since there isn’t one and going straight to the look outside. You’re right it can be really hard to see out of those windows with any conviction. I’ve taken off in heavy snow when trucks were near end of runway and we were number one. Trucks have us the inspection and off we went. It would have to be a situation like that for me to go.
 
L-16B said:
Pretty sure on the airbus that’s the fire missle button
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2nd row, right side…

1672720368197.jpeg
 
Kingairer said:
That 5 min check likely exists any time a HOT has been exceeded (with caveats for fzrain) so basically with heavy snow you’re skipping the HOT part since there isn’t one and going straight to the look outside. You’re right it can be really hard to see out of those windows with any conviction. I’ve taken off in heavy snow when trucks were near end of runway and we were number one. Trucks have us the inspection and off we went. It would have to be a situation like that for me to go.
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You're right of course. Took me a while to wrap my head around it, but they’re basically equating “no calculated holdover time” with “holdover time has expired” and handling those two events the same way. I still think it’s a little sketchy but I at least understand it now. Funny how after doing this stuff for a quarter century you still run across things you haven’t seen before.
 
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