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.
In this post:
An unusual Airbus side stick landing
From a pilot’s perspective, one of the major differences between Airbus and Boeing aircraft is that the former are controlled by side sticks, while the latter are controlled by yokes. Pilots have different preferences between the two aircraft types — some prefer the more intuitive way that Boeing aircraft can be controlled, while others prefer that they have more space in front of them on an Airbus.
There’s an Airbus A320 crosswind landing video that’s getting quite a bit of attention on social media, which I think is worth sharing. It was filmed at Buenos Aires’ city airport, Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP), as a plane is approaching runway 13 while there’s a crosswind.
You can see the 45-second video for yourself below, and as you can tell, the pilot is making a lot of inputs during approach. Admittedly the Airbus side stick isn’t overly sensitive, but still, you can see that he goes from one extreme to the other almost the entire way down. I’ve watched a lot of Airbus landing videos, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite this extreme in terms of inputs.
What pilots have to say about this approach
It goes without saying that I’m not an airline pilot, and therefore am not qualified to comment on whether the pilot was so far off here, or what exactly was going on.
Nonetheless there are quite a few pilots chiming in, and they don’t seem terribly impressed by what’s going on. One 8,000-hour Airbus captain says he has never made inputs like this, and wonders if the pilot understands fly by wire logic.
Another pilot similarly comments that there’s way too much control input, and that caused pilot induced oscillation, making the situation harder for the pilot than it needed to be.
Another commenter points out how the pilot doesn’t even have his arm positioned correctly, as it’s supposed to be in a resting position, rather than him “wrestling” the plane down in that way, which only makes matters more difficult.
I think the part I’m most confused about is why this video was filmed. Did the pilot film it himself (as some pilots do for fun), because he thought he was displaying impressive airmanship, and wanted to show off? Or…?
In fairness, the pilot did land the plane safely, and in the end that’s what counts most… right?
Bottom line
One of the more interesting Airbus cockpit landing videos I’ve seen is circulating on social media, showing a pilot “wresting” a plane down in Buenos Aires. The pilot provides inputs unlike what I’ve ever seen before. I’m not saying he did a bad job, but other Airbus pilots seem to think so…
What do you make of this Airbus cockpit landing video?
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...
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
The pilot is trying to land on the G-spot.
@Eskimo
I think they’re renaming the cockpit. I’m offended.
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.
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
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.
That looks like my first attempts using MS Flightsim...
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.
I don't believe Boeings are controlled by eggs! It would be "yoke" not "yolk" :)
@ BRC -- Hah, whoops, thank you. Fixed!
This is the video I didn’t know I needed today. Lol.
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...
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.