Side stick vs conventional Yoke

A

Andy5466

Well-Known Member
I would like to hear some of your opinions about flying the airbus with a side stick over say a 737 with a yoke. Do you think that it takes some of the fun out of the flying with the side stick? With no actual feel to the airplane? Or do you enjoy the extra space? (i have never actuall flown one i am just assuming) Also with all the automation do you actually enjoy the flying you do? (Mainly speaking about major airline carriers) Any insight would be great.

Thanks in advance
Andy5466
 
I've never flown a Boeing or Airbus, but ridden on the jumpseat up front in both quite a lot.

I always thought the side stick was a better design. It lets the pilot set a chart out directly in front of them, or even more importantly, eat their crew meal on a proper table as though it's fine dining. If I had to pick one or the other, I'd go for the side stick.

Also, I hate to say it, but I don't think either cockpit was designed with "fun" in mind. Airlines have a way of systematically sucking the fun out of flying. You're there to do a job so you can afford to have fun in a beat up old taildragger on your days off.
 
jrh said:
Also, I hate to say it, but I don't think either cockpit was designed with "fun" in mind. Airlines have a way of systematically sucking the fun out of flying. You're there to do a job so you can afford to have fun in a beat up old taildragger on your days off.
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Don't blame the cockpit design for that... Have plenty of fun in our version of the 707. Although, we do have days of suck too.

However, I do think you sorta hit it on the head with the fun on days off thing... The great thing about the military flying is you can actually take a plane for a day and go do some bouncing in a pattern somewhere. Doing it in the sim is, well, the sim.

Stealing a airliner with only 3-5 crew members on board and going to try to get into trouble with it... Now, that's flying!
 
Who needs a stick? That's what the autopilot is for. I'm a RealPilot™ so I dont do manual labor.
 
I'm kidding, I've never flown a jet.... let alone a jet with a side stick. I have however flown MS Flight Sim with a joystick over on the side of my desk, and that was super fun. I even circumnavigated a thunderstorm and it worked great. So, I think I can speak with authority and say a sidestick is great.
 
Andy5466 said:
I would like to hear some of your opinions about flying the airbus with a side stick over say a 737 with a yoke. Do you think that it takes some of the fun out of the flying with the side stick? With no actual feel to the airplane? Or do you enjoy the extra space? (
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I've been in a 757 cockpit with a side stick. Flies just the same with George at the helm :)
 
Paging Cav

This is probably blasphemy, but I wouldn't mind a side stick. The cruise ship yoke just gets in the way of the HSI on the 767.

Then again, I'm also the guy who prefers the 767 over the 757. :P
 
I've flown both a Boeing and an Airbus and I can say with certainty that I greatly prefer Boeing's approach. To me the 757/767 has the perfect level of automation. It's incredibly intuitive, easy to learn, and is very predictable. The Airbus takes some time to wrap your mind around and IMO it is not all that intuitive. It seems guys who have been on the aircraft a long time become proficient at tricking it into doing what you want it to do.

I will give Airbus credit for designing a truly wonderful flight deck. It was incredibly well thought out and ahead of its time. I know some guys love the side stick and having it off to the side and out of the way is a great thing as is the tray table. That being said, I still prefer a yoke from a feel and visual perspective. In fact I like a really big one like the DC9! ;) But that's my personal preference and others will disagree and their argument has merit. That doesn't mean I don't curse the thing at mealtime!

Same thing with moveable throttles. The stationary levers on the Airbus are plain stupid in my opinion. I like how the Boeing gives me instantaneous feel of what the auto throttles are doing without having to look or listen, just feel. I also love being able to override the auto throttles without disengaging them. Don't like the descent rate in VNAV? If you're in "Throttle Hold" just bump the thrust up a bit and shallow it out until you intercept VNAV Path. Embraer 145 guys will know what I mean if they think of FLCH climbs and the effect moving the thrust levers has. Same concept really just in the reverse.

I enjoy both airplanes. The Airbus will land softer and more consistently than any airplane I've ever flown. I think that was my favorite thing about the bus.
 
Andy5466 said:
Thanks for the feedback i was just curious. How often do you all hand fly approaches?
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In actual conditions? Never. They pay me to get the plane on the ground safely, not prove how awesome I am.

In visual conditions? Every leg. I can't stand leaving the AP on inside the marker if I can see the airport.

EDIT: I should clarify, when I say actual, I really mean down to minimums. I click off the AP as soon as we break out, be it at 200' or 1,000'.
 
seagull @jtrain and to anyone reading do yal have any airports or arrivals that you particularly enjoy that you might click off the auto pilot at say 10,000 ft and hand fly it the rest of the way in?
 
Andy5466 said:
seagull @jtrain and to anyone reading do yal have any airports or arrivals that you particularly enjoy that you might click off the auto pilot at say 10,000 ft and hand fly it the rest of the way in?
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The only times I'll do that is in visual conditions in the mountains in Colorado. I generally find it easier to configure the aircraft, dump energy, and maneuver into the pattern at an uncontrolled airport while flying the airplane myself than it is to do it all through the autopilot.

Oh speaking of, I'll do that in DTW too, where they like to keep you high and fast in the downwind.
 
Andy5466 said:
seagull @jtrain and to anyone reading do yal have any airports or arrivals that you particularly enjoy that you might click off the auto pilot at say 10,000 ft and hand fly it the rest of the way in?
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Any little outstation on a nice day is perfect for that and that's generally what I do.

Like coming into Savannah last Saturday. Great weather and no traffic and we had the airport in sight 30 miles out. It was my leg and I turned everything off 20-30 miles away and flew in visually.

As seagull and others have mentioned above, if it was a 200' ceiling that day and a half mile visibility, I most likely would have left the autopilot on until seeing the runway. I have flown exactly two approaches to minimums in the past two years. Having been a reserve pilot for that time, I did not fly many hours per month and so although I'm sure I could have flown the thing down to minimums okay, why not take advantage of the automation in that situation and sort of 'sit back' and monitor more.

Expressway visual 31 at LGA is always fun, since you asked. Did that this month as well.

I'd probably put myself in the top 10 percentile as far as amount of hand-flying goes with people I regularly fly with. I also always turn of the autothrottles when I turn off the autopilot.
 
jtrain609 said:
Oh speaking of, I'll do that in DTW too, where they like to keep you high and fast in the downwind.
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For no reason.

(if you ever have asked them "can we increase above 210kts to get down quicker?" when there's no traffic, they always immediately say sure no problem)
 
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