Emergency Decent

[Flyingdutchman]

Emergency Descent

I was having a discussion with a few guys.

Would you during a em. descent (lets say from FL370 to 10.000 feet like that Helios 737 in Greece)

A) Have the A/P fly ?

or,

B) Fly manual ?

Why A or B ? and what does your company say?

FD

 

[atrdriver]

Personally I would rather let the AP fly. If I'm doing an emer descent there is a reason for it, and I'm going to be trying to take care of the other things that are going wrong. Company also says let the AP fly if it's available.

 

[Butters]

I was having a discussion with a few friends..

Would you during a emerg. dec. (lets say from FL370 to 10.000 feet like that Helios 737 in Greece)

A) Have the A/P fly

or,

B) Fly manual ?

Why A or B ? and what does your company say?

FD

I choose B. Too critical of a time to let the AP fly. I would want to have the control at that point. Company doesn't dictate either way where I work.

While we are on the subject, if the reports of freezing temps are true, does anyone know why they didn't try to get down earlier?

 

[Flyingdutchman]

Ok boys.

This is a good and interesting discussion. I would fly manual, unless it's IMC.

What does your company manual say about this? Manual or A/P?

FD

 

[J32driver]

With the A/P on, set 10,000, select IAS mode, power to idle, boards out. Nothing else to do other than deal with the problem. I'd let the autopilot do the work.

 

[Butters]

With the A/P on, set 10,000, select IAS mode, power to idle, boards out. Nothing else to do other than deal with the problem. I'd let the autopilot do the work.

Just be careful someone is still watching the autopilot. Nothing like making a bad situation worse.

 

[Flying_Corporal]

Ok boys.

This is a good and interesting discussion. I would fly manual, unless it's IMC.

What does your company manual say about this? Manual or A/P?

FD

Manual. I believe some autopilots' max rate of descent is 3000 fpm, which is probably not enough when you need to get down from to 10K quickly.

 

[LegacyDriver]

If you have oxygen on and can breathe then there isn't a whole lot out there that requires an incredible descent rate. If you can't get down in time at 3,000-4,000 fpm you are probably dead any way. That's my thinking.


Ditto the above: Masks, Idle, Boards, Gear (if it's that bad), 10,000 Feet/MSA, IAS mode, Checklists. Let the A/P take the workload from you--there are bigger fish to fry at this point.

 

[LowlyPropCapt]

Suit up and communicate and let the AP fly it down. Thats company policy and I agree with it. A high workload time and no pilot, especially on which may be impaired has any business hand flying if he can help it.

 

[Flyingdutchman]

Is that in the Dash? isn't your max. service ceiling FL 250 anyway?

Keep 'm comming.

(Are you Den based?? getting junior sp*nked a lot last few days?? )