Spinplate said:
Pilot has more control over airplane manually than in AP mode. Loss of cabin press. that drastic is going to be caused by some sort of structural failure somewhere in the plane so in manual mode you would have better control and would be able to make faster pitch/roll changes than AP if it were serious, but its totally situational on what the cause is. Last but not least get ATC to let you know if 10k will even be a good altitude (IMC over Colorado and splat). They'll tell you in a sec the lowest you could go in any direction. Like I said, depends on situation......need to know more on conditions inside and outside of plane.
If I had structural problems as the reason for the depressurization, the last thing I want to do is start yanking and banking. The A/P is going to do a fine job of holding your current speed (if you have structural issues, the last thing you want to do is run 'er up to Vmo/Mmo) or accelerating if you desire/need to.
Just for giggles, here's the Emergency Descent flow (for the CRJ)as I remember it (it's late and I'm way too tired):
O2 masks don
Establish communications
Hot mic on
Speaker on
Mask/Boom mic Mask
"Captain on O2"
"First Officer on O2"
Captain Flow:
Seat belt sign on
FCP:
Set lower altitude
push speed knob
engage speed mode
Thrust levers idle
Flight spoilers deployed
Synoptic page: doors (looking for potential structural damage)
Set airspeed to Vmo/Mmo if no obvious structural damage
PA announcement to passengers.
First Officer Flow:
ATC:
Declare emergency
Verify airspace below is clear
Inquire about the MEA
7700
Reset altitude to 10,000 or MEA whichever is higher
PAX O2 on as commanded by Captain
AT 10,000 or MEA
Flight spoilers retract
Set airspeed to 250
O2 masks off
Captain transfers control to First Officer
Captain calls Flight Attendant to assess damage.
Y'all may want to nit-pick this or that, but this is basically the way our Flight Ops wants it done. Feel free. I won't bother responding. This is my point though....... who in the hell wants to be hand-flying at the same time?
AF
