svcta
"Kids these days"-AAflyer
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2004
- Posts
- 1,767
Hey gang,
I have a question for those of you with Pro Line 4 EFIS. The subject of how to properly set up the flight director for take off has been swirling around my department lately and I'd like to get a better handle on it myself. Situation:
With Pro Line 21 there was a TO/TO mode activated by clicking the TOGA buttons. My understanding with that system was that TO/TO was simply a function of the flight director that propagated a Roll and Pitch mode along with aligning the FMS with the end of the runway that it was told to depart from. We took off in this mode and kept it there until 400 feet, at which point we would switch to Heading and some other mode of vertical guidance, typically Speed Mode (or FLC). This gave excellent guidance in every situation that I saw; V1 cuts, or normal t/o. It was trained that way by the factory.
Now I'm on an a/c with Pro Line 4 and there is no Take Off mode for the flight director. I've always been in the habit of using Roll and Pitch mode for T/O and have continued to do so. Reasons:
It sure is nice when you're given a heading to fly and you can preset it. "400 feet": "Heading mode, please" and away we go, no questions asked.
Heading mode won't compensate for wind drift any better than roll mode, and it will in fact command roll input to whatever degree it feels is appropriate to a distressed, slow airplane to maintain heading. This alone I view as a pitfall of heading mode.
Since the whole profile that I use involves switching to heading mode @ 400 feet anyway, I believe that I'd rather have wings level to that point (close to the ground and trying to build energy) than I'd like to maintain a flawless heading, regardless of the bank angle that is required to do so.
The question before the gallery is this: according to some, there is no protection with Roll mode to ensure that the a/c remains in the clearway of the take off runway. With this I agree. However, I think that it's better to wait a 10 or 20 seconds (if that) and get some speed and altitude behind us before we do much banking for headings with no degree of protection with respect to how far over we go.
In the airplanes that I flew with Pro Line 21 we would use half bank during single engine stuff.
In any event, what are the thoughts on this?
I have a question for those of you with Pro Line 4 EFIS. The subject of how to properly set up the flight director for take off has been swirling around my department lately and I'd like to get a better handle on it myself. Situation:
With Pro Line 21 there was a TO/TO mode activated by clicking the TOGA buttons. My understanding with that system was that TO/TO was simply a function of the flight director that propagated a Roll and Pitch mode along with aligning the FMS with the end of the runway that it was told to depart from. We took off in this mode and kept it there until 400 feet, at which point we would switch to Heading and some other mode of vertical guidance, typically Speed Mode (or FLC). This gave excellent guidance in every situation that I saw; V1 cuts, or normal t/o. It was trained that way by the factory.
Now I'm on an a/c with Pro Line 4 and there is no Take Off mode for the flight director. I've always been in the habit of using Roll and Pitch mode for T/O and have continued to do so. Reasons:
It sure is nice when you're given a heading to fly and you can preset it. "400 feet": "Heading mode, please" and away we go, no questions asked.
Heading mode won't compensate for wind drift any better than roll mode, and it will in fact command roll input to whatever degree it feels is appropriate to a distressed, slow airplane to maintain heading. This alone I view as a pitfall of heading mode.
Since the whole profile that I use involves switching to heading mode @ 400 feet anyway, I believe that I'd rather have wings level to that point (close to the ground and trying to build energy) than I'd like to maintain a flawless heading, regardless of the bank angle that is required to do so.
The question before the gallery is this: according to some, there is no protection with Roll mode to ensure that the a/c remains in the clearway of the take off runway. With this I agree. However, I think that it's better to wait a 10 or 20 seconds (if that) and get some speed and altitude behind us before we do much banking for headings with no degree of protection with respect to how far over we go.
In the airplanes that I flew with Pro Line 21 we would use half bank during single engine stuff.
In any event, what are the thoughts on this?