As we move towards an era of diverging job
functions assigned to cabin crew and flight crew, a single barrier that
catalyses this divide is the cockpit door.
Increasingly, this door has served to alienate and undermine the bonding
that existed between the two sets of operating crew on board. During pre-flight
briefing we go through the motions of communication and cockpit access protocol
during normal and conditions where security of the cabin is breached.
Showing posts with label FLIGHT CREW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FLIGHT CREW. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
CABIN AND FLIGHT CREW COMMUNICATION DURING UNLAWFUL INTERFERENCE
Labels:
CABIN CREW,
communication,
FLIGHT CREW,
PRE=FLIGHT BRIEFING,
procedures
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT BY FLIGHT CREW
Srinivas Rao | 12:06 AM |
CRM
|
FLIGHT CREW
|
LANDING
|
procedures
|
TASK SHARING
|
WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT
Key to conducting a flight efficiently and safely is to effectively manage the workload one is faced with during different phases of the flight.
Flight crew workload is typically shared between a Captain and a First Officer.Whilst one takes up the mantle of pilot flying, the other crew carry out the pilot not flying/ pilot monitoring duties.
Workload management is regulated within the frame work of operations by promulgating standard operating procedures, task sharing principles,time management and so on.
Workload is the highest for flight crew during preflight, taxi out, take off and climb to cruise level, before top of descent, during descent, approach, landing and taxi in to bay.
Procedures detailed ensure that they clearly define various tasks carried out during these times and by whom it is executed to regulate the workload and lessen the burden.
Not withstanding the above, during emergency and multiple emergency situations, despite the crew being trained in handling situations in various scenarios, one is faced at times with situations wherein the crew need to dig deep and face occasionaly tremendous increase in their workload, also termed as task saturation. Only way to manage highly increased loads is to prioritise the tasks, work with fellow crew,share the work load and seek similar assistance from cabin crew, ground control and others , to manage the emergency to ensure a safe landing.
Workload management forms part of Crew resource management(CRM) training and equips one with dealing in situations which he hasn't dealt before.
Labels:
CRM,
FLIGHT CREW,
LANDING,
procedures,
TASK SHARING,
WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
BUFFET BOUNDARIES- COFFIN'S CORNER
Stall speed is defined as
the minimum airspeed required to maintain 1g level flight. Any further
reduction in speed will result in the lift produced by the wings to be less
than the weight of the aircraft and leads to a loss of altitude. The increase
in angle of attack will in turn cause flow separation from the upper surface of
the wing . In a swept back high speed aerofoil, this flow separation and
associated pitch down will not be a marked phenomenon. Instead the aircraft enters
into a descent. The descent rate further tilts the relative airflow downwards
and leads to an increase in angle of attack further driving the aircraft into the
stall regime. Any attempt by the pilot to raise the attitude by aft pressure on
the elevator will cause a further increase in angle of attack and further loss
of altitude.
The lift, however, depends on both air density (kg/m³)
and on the plane’s velocity, and air density decreases with altitude. So, the
higher you go, the faster you have to fly to stay above the stall speed. As you
go higher, temperature also decreases, at least in the troposphere were
commercial planes are flying. As the temperature decreases, so does the speed
of sound.
Similarly, the critical
Mach number is the maximum speed at which the airflow can sustain over the
wings without losing lift due to flow separation and shock waves,. Any increase
in speed in will cause the airplane to encounter stall effects. When the critical
Mach number is exceeded, there is an abrupt rise in drag rise as well as a
pitch down due Mach tuck. This can result in aircraft upset, altitude loss and
loss of control. As the aircraft descends, the airspeed increases. Excessive
pull forces during recovery may lead to further loss of control or structural
damage to the airplane.
Modern commercial jet aircraft may suffer both high and low speed stall buffet. The associated boundaries
are depicted in the FCOM of the aircraft. The high speed buffet is caused by flow
separation from the wings as occurs behind a shockwave at high altitudes and/or
Mach numbers. The low speed buffet is caused by the same airflow separation as
the aircraft approaches the stall angle of attack. With stall speed
increasing with altitude and sound speed decreasing, the velocity window in
which an aircraft can operate becomes narrower and narrower.
Turning manoeuvres at these
altitudes increase the angle of attack and results in stability deterioration
with a decrease in control
effectiveness. The relationship of stall speeds to critical Mach
number (Mcrit) narrows to a point where sudden increase in angle of attack ,
roll rates and disturbances cause the limits of the airspeed to be exceeded.
The Coffin corner or the Q corner
is the altitude at or near which a high speed fixed wing aircraft’s stall speed
is equal to the critical Mach number. Coffin
corner exists in the upper portion of the manoeuvring envelope of an aircraft, for
a given gross weight and G – Force.
VMO is an aircraft’s
indicated airspeed limit. Exceeding the Vmo may cause aerodynamic flutter and G
load limitations to become critical during recovery. Structural design integrity is also not predictable at
airspeeds greater than Vmo.
A deeper understanding of
the stall characteristics and recovery procedures are important proficiency
issues. When flying at high altitudes,
the crew needs to be aware of the margins of safety available, especially when manoeuvring
and while riding out turbulence.
To recover from a stall, the attitude needs to be
decreased to reduce the angle of attack. The old maxim of Power for ROD or
altitude control and Attitude for airspeed control holds good. A burst of power
is not the solution for a stall recovery. In all cases, remember “attitude before power” when you are in a
stall.
Labels:
AERODYNAMICS,
BUFFET BOUNDARIES,
FLIGHT CREW,
HANDLING,
THEORY OF FLIGHT
Saturday, January 14, 2012
EXTERNAL WALK-AROUND
Srinivas Rao | 11:02 AM |
AIRWORTHINESS
|
EXTERNAL WALK AROUND
|
FLIGHT CREW
|
MAINTENANCE
|
procedures
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
FLIGHT CREW AND CABIN CREW COMMUNICATION
Today's cabin
crew are highly trained, highly skilled, and centre on safety as the core of
their job function. And, just like the pilots, many have been trained in crew
resource management principles. However, some recent findings have uncovered
some disturbing facts about the division of responsibilities and safety issues
between the cockpit (pilots) and the cabin crew (Cabin crew). The underlying
goal for both the pilots and Cabin crew is the safe and efficient completion of
a flight. Yet, there has been an unrelenting division of these groups in times
of emergencies as well as routine operations. How could this be? As a
layperson, you would assume that these groups would be highly cohesive by
nature, and yet the opposite has been shown to be true.
The
problem with pilot and flight attendant teamwork, particularly in the area of
communications, has its roots in the disparate job functions of both groups.
When speaking of pilots, it is a mostly male dominated profession. Conversely,
when speaking of Cabin crew, it is a mostly female dominated profession. It
should be noted, however, that there has been an increased percentage of
"gender balancing" over the last few decades for both groups.
Theoretically speaking, and this comes from basic innate gender characteristics,
male and female thought processes could be somewhat divergent. This is not to
say that there is an abundance of testosterone in the cockpit or that females
may be influenced by their inherent affective nature, but the gender
differences do have to be considered when groups are segregated into mostly
male versus mostly female categories.
Besides
gender influences, the most salient reason for division in these groups appears
to lie in the division of job functions and responsibilities. The cockpit crew
is separated from the cabin crew by not only physical barriers (the door), but
also communicative barriers (most communication is conducted through an
impersonal interphone). Until relatively recently, pilots considered the
cockpit "their territory" while the Cabin crew considered the cabin
"their territory." Typically, the only times that these two groups
would interface was when the pilots needed to be fed, or in the event of an
emergency.
"the
basic problem is that these two crews represent two distinct and separate
cultures, and that this separation serves to inhibit satisfactory
teamwork."
Well,
we have - the pilots and the Cabin crew have respect amongst one another as
friends but when it comes to working as a crew, we don't work as a crew. We
work as two crews. You have a front-end crew and a back-end crew, and we are
looked upon as serving coffee and lunch and things like that.
By
now you have seen the magnitude of the problem; two groups, two cultures, and
two completely separate job functions. The pilots, who work in the small but
highly complex cockpit—and the Cabin crew, who come from the service-oriented
and spacious cabin—having difficulties bringing their environments closer
together and working in harmony.
Pilots
and Cabin crew need to understand the basic psychology of group dynamics and
the positive effect that pre-flight briefings can have between groups. Many
pilots and Cabin crew may have never worked together before and yet both of
these groups tend to remain isolated before, during, and after a flight. Some captains
are better with an introduction and a briefing than others. But overall, there
tends to be a "chill in the air" during pre-flight routines.
Labels:
CABIN CREW,
communication,
CRM,
FLIGHT CREW,
procedures
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