Increasing SOP Compliance

In the era where increased incidents and accidents are attributed to flight crew non-adherence to procedures, what can be done to ensure increased SOP compliance?

Standard Operating Procedures(SOP) are a critical component in flight operations and in improving the flight safety. They are intended as a guard against operational errors and help elevate crew performance leading to safe operation of a flight.

A380 PUSHING TECHNICAL BOUNDARIES

Airbus has always been at the forefront of pushing technical boundaries in aviation and excelling in aircraft design and technology. Airbus says efforts to lower the weight of the world's largest airliner lay behind recent A380 wing cracks and pledged to learn from mistakes that lay dormant for a decade, as repair costs looked set to climb towards 500 million euros ($A642 million).

A380 SUPER AND WAKE TURBULENCE

Airbus.com

Wake turbulence is turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. Wingtip vortices occur when a wing is generating lift. Wake turbulence exists in the vortex flow behind the wing. The strength of wingtip vortices is determined primarily by the weight and airspeed of the aircraft.Wingtip vortices make up the primary and most dangerous component of wake turbulence. This is the reason the separation criteria had to be written out for A380.

WING LOADS

In the aftermath of wing root cracks appearing on A380, lets refresh ourselves on how the wing loading and wing root cracks surface.


Lift produced by a wing is not linear across the wing surface.As a matter of fact,lift is produced by the wing as a result of pressure differential between the top and bottom side of the wing.The pressure differential gives birth to wing shear force and a bending moment, which is the highest where the wing meets the fuselage.

However, aircraft like A330,whose engines are wing mounted, their weight is near the area where maximum lift is being produced.This reduces the total weight, thereby reducing the shear force and the bending moment at the wing root.

Wing loads are also subject to the fuel distribution in the wing.Aiming to achieve lesser moment at the wing root is the objective in effectively managing the wing loading.