Never said I took the picture!

For those that don’t know – Myrtle Avenue is the field at the bottom of the picture by the road where spotters convene to take photos of aircraft landing on 27L at LHR.

Here’s the picture again but this one can be clicked on and appear much larger.

At least he’d been doing the driving on the 757 :p

Let me see…on the 757 you move the thing to the left to go left and to the right to go right but on the 340…I do exactly the same. What’s the difference?

Martin, most people prefer the 600 to the 300 as it’s much easier to land. We also get LCD screens rather than CRT’s which allow a nicer presentation of information (new 300’s also get LCD’s these days). The main criticism of the 600 at the moment is with the fuel management. This will probably be sorted with the next software update.

Must be good then, as the 757/767 autobrake seems very smooooth compared with the 732/733 autobrake, which was dreadful….it stopped the jet well enough, but no finesse!

Very progressive in its application and doesn’t snatch if you disarm by applying brake pressure. System also doesn’t have to be manually turned off after vacating. Airbus are currently testing ‘brake to vacate’ whereby you select your chosen turn off in the FMC CDU and the autobrake will automatically adjust the retardation provided to put you at the correct speed at the turn off. I would be surprised if Boeing weren’t trying to do something similar for the 787.

Very true, the only similarity is the knob…and I don’t mean the person driving!

as long as it works 🙂

Better than it did on the 757! Much smoooother 😀

Just a bit more info to explain how the system works…

On the ground the taxi cameras can be superimposed on either/both pilots PFD’s (primary flight displays as seen in the pic accompanying this post) or on the lower ECAM screen as seen in the original picture. If the image is displayed on the PFD during the take off roll it is automatically removed once the ground speed exceeds 60kts regardless of switch position. In flight the image can only be displayed on the ECAM. We can use it in flight to monitor any abnormalities with the airframe or engines. We mainly use it on the ground to assist us taxying (the A346 is 6 meters longer than the B744, a little bit longer than the B773 but doesn’t have the benefit of body gear steering to help going round corners).

The screen is divided in 2. The top third shows the view shows the image from the camera mounted on the underside (the lower beacon automatically switches off when the camera is in use so we don’t get blinded!) while the lower third shows the image from a camera mounted at the top of the fin. The picture below shows the reason for the 2 magenta dots and the magenta boxes. Basically we always try to ensure that the edges of the taxyway never encroach inside the boxes. These boxes are illuminated at night by lights on the underside of the fuselage. The dots help you judge when to start a turn with the tiller, when the yellow centerline touches the dots then you start feeding in tiller input. A 90 degree turn will have the flightdeck well over the grass!

Also of interest is the tray table in the partially extended position showing the green checklist on the back. There is no need to actually use a checklist inflight on a modern Airbus as the aircraft self monitors and informs you of any items not completed.

aye, just copying Boeings Autobrake settings :diablo:

Not at all…on the Airbus it’s much more clever 😉