Hey Ted!
First, I'm a die hard Boeing fan, so make the statement with a lot of thought. I was a Boeing to bus transition, but to be fair, have the most time in the BOEING (tongue in cheek) md-88.
-edit- bus refers to Airbus. A good jet, good company, but known for EXTENSIVE automation that isn't very intuitive. It really is as if engineers are convinced they can remove decision making from the pilot. These planes are EXCEPTIONAL when NOTHING is going wrong, whether it be internal or external.
I make the statement purely from a airframe perspective. That thing LOVES to fly, and it shows. If I hit the marker at 250 in a mad dog, zero problem. 250 in a Boeing, it's work but totally safe. 180 (vs our usual 170) in a -330, likely going around! No kidding. Don't know about the -320 series.
-edit- the marker is basically a final approach fix. In bad weather, in the clouds, you want to arrive here, basically 2000 feet above the ground, 6 1/2 miles from touchdown, or about 3 minutes, configured to land and at your landing speed. In good visual conditions you generally start to configure to land here. If traffic is light, approach will let you get here as fast as you want within reason.
A fully loaded 76-300er going to Africa dribbles off the runway, squats in a turn and will once in a while give you a heart stopping touch of shaker when you retract flaps. 575,000 lb -330 flings into the air, goes right to 30 degrees bank and flies around clean at 220 knots. Amazing.
-edit- shaker refers to stick shaker, basically a stall warning feature. Really gets your attention. We can test this on the ground with a simple flip switch. We tell kids to hang onto the controls and then flip this switch and tell them they are shooting the machine gun! I've shot jet mounted machine guns, it pretty much feels the same!
With auto throttles off, NOT EVEN DEMONSTRATED IN TRAINING!, if you're a little slow and add a little throttle, it goes a little faster, and vice versa. The 75 and 76, add a little, nothing. Add a little more, nothing. Just squeeze em a tad, bam, 10 knots too fast. Lather rinse repeat!
-edit- 75 and 76 refer to Boeing 757 and Boeing 767. Guys from other companies might refer to them as 57 and 67. Delta had a 767-400 jet, northwest had a 747-400... Neither company had both, and they were referred to as -400s in each company. After the merger, much confusion! Lots of little,things like this. All planes with radios have a place to hang the microphone, which is rarely used, ever. Shortly after the merger of northwest and delta, you could tell the background of the guy who flew previously by where the microphone was. At delta we hung it face in between to switches, the cord neatly nestled inbetween. Northwest guys set it face out, the projecting portion neatly nestled in a vee formed by the intersection of the glare shield and side window... These little differences are pretty fun to notice. Much like dialect in a language.
Just a very very gentlemanly airframe. Trend vectors ROCK on the engine and airspeed displays. The miserable methodology of the autopilot is only surpassed by the FMS. It seems all the intuitive stuff was gobbled up by Boeing and patented.
-edit- trend vectors are a little arrow off the pointer... Remember, no real Gage's, merely pictures of them on a computer screen. These little arrows give you an idea of the rate of change the pointer is experiencing... Weird at first, priceless once you figure the little buggers out. Unique to the bus in my experience. The 787 might have them, don't know...
The side stick doesn't matter a lick. I like it, very easy to put your charts in front of you, so pragmatic at the least. Forget to adjust your armrest and it's like you forgot to fly! Insofar as the simulator behaving like the plane, well, BOTH are totally computer controlled, so it does! Spot on!
Have to remember that you are not commanding an aileron position, but a roll rate. Not an elevator position but a g onset rate... It's NOT fly by wire, but fly by computer, even when the autopilot is "off".
I have been a HUGE advocate of hand flying since I started in the airlines. Only in the last 5 years has it become ANYTHING of a priority. I hate to think of how many airliners would have been saved by a simple modicum of proficient hand flying. Uh, power plus attitude equals performance... Tell me that doesn't bring back some OLD memories!
I reckon if necessary I can get on the radio and get help with the autopilot, not so with FLYING. In the Navy we had no minimums at the ship, land or punch out. Zero zero approaches hand flown to a carrier deck were expected. Didn't even have a autopilot, or flight director. Hand flying an airliner in zero zero conditions with how stable they are, and awesome flight directors is flatly boring, and since the northwest merger, we can't even hand fly a cat II.... That's sad. Unless there were mitigating circumstances, I ALWAYS hand flew cat I approaches, because it's fun! If tired, really dicey weather, some other issue going on, weak other crewmember, hooked it up and watched. That happened often enough to stay plenty proficient.
-edit- a flight director is a method of showing the pilot what the autopilot would do, or is doing if engaged. It shows up on the main gyro. If you have it on, and the autopilot off, you can follow it manually. It helps to not over correct, as it is dampened out. In certain phases of flight, it's usually not so good, you learn when to follow it and not. Again, once acclimatized, it's usually a great thing.
Your post United gig sounds pretty neat! Love to chat about this stuff, Give me a holler any time!
Mike, 423 883 0721
Topic: 737 Flight Control (Read 2331 times)
