As an aviation geek, I love watching cockpit videos, whether they’re from takeoff, landing, an emergency, or something else. Here’s what’s no doubt one of the more unusual ones I’ve seen.
Continue reading: An Airbus Pilot’s Very Strange Landing…
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I don't believe Boeings are controlled by eggs! It would be "yoke" not "yolk" 🙂
Clearly just showing off for the camera to make his control inputs look more dramatic and impressive. What he's doing is dangerous and unnecessary, and it's a poor way to fly a stabilized approach.
As an A320 pilot , I can say this is 100% the wrong way to handle the aircraft. Even if heavy crosswinds , making corrections as he was is dangerous and unnecessary
This sadly reminds me of the inputs from FO Bonin on AF 447. The data recorder showed that he was all over the place with the stick.
Now that one was a real tragedy on so many levels. But it basically reflected very poor pilot training, incompetence and lack of airmanship skills. A truly sad story.
And that is why the answer to Ben's question...
"In fairness, the pilot did land the plane safely, and in the end that’s what counts most… right?"
...is "wrong!"
If you drive drunk and almost cause 6 accidents between the bar and home, that does not mean that "what counts" is that you made it home without killing anyone.
And if “ifs” & “butts” were candies & nutz, we’d ALL have a merry Xmas. if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle. If if if. We don’t live in “what if” world.
Ben’s right, he made it down safely. Crosswinds, should never be taking lightly, they can change in a second & gust severely & wildly.
Supposed to fly on an A320 out of there tomorrow. Definitely *not* the video I needed today!
I speak from the perspective of being a current captain on the A320 series, I really don’t like Monday morning quarterbacking, but this seems to really be a case of hamming it up. The side stick is even the main focus of the camera.
The majority of his full deflection inputs are too fast and brief to even result in any actual response from the aircraft. There have been rare occasions where I’ve needed brief full lateral deflection of the stick in heavy gusting crosswinds or landing in runways with obstructions on both sides, but that was immediately followed by releasing the lateral pressure. Not immediate full deflection in the opposite direction. Worst case… slight opposite pressure.
This is either a case of extremely poor airmanship, or a pilot knowing exactly what his inputs will and won’t do and using that to his advantage to make the video look as dramatic as possible. This is about as cringeworthy as the increasingly common landing videos with a slightly increased frame rate to make everything look faster and more dramatic. It just makes me shake my head.
I watched an A380 takeoff video in fine weather and was surprised at the constant side stick movements.
As a former ramper the 320 cockpit is like a ballroom compared to the 737
But one difference to note is on the 737, any inputs on one side are replicated on the other seat.
I believe with the Air France crash from South America to Paris the captain and first officer were making inputs independent of each other whereas on the 737 the yoke would be duplicating the opposite seat movements.
For the pilots out there, there was talk of Airbus having the side sticks moving in sync. Is this being looked at for future derivatives