Airbus Operational Philosophy

Cockpit Design

- The first main goal is to facilitate safety towards the operating of the aircraft by the crew.
- Ensure safety, passenger comfort, and efficiency, in that order of priority
- Situational awareness of the environment and the aircraft status is more easily shown to the
crew, through simplification of tasks (ECAM procedures), automation, etc.
- Automation is considered as an additional feature available to the flight crew, who can
decide when to delegate and what level of assistance they need in accordance with the
situation

Arrangement of Panels

- Designed to facilitate a 2-man operation.

- The layout is designed to:
o Reduce human workload, hence reducing fatigue
o Reduce the “Head Down” time, hence ensuring the PF is able to maintain a higher
sense of awareness with his surroundings.
- The location of the main controls accounts for:
o Priority of the system
o How frequent the crew operates the control
 E.g. Overhead Panel – Cascade Arrangement, each system control panel is
stacked on top of one another
 FIRE, HYD, FUEL, ELEC, AIR, LIGHTS
o The ease at which the controls can be reached
o The duplication of the controls, if needed
- A ‘Dark’ cockpit concept for the Overhead Panel indicates the systems are ready for flight.
- Colour coding is a very important part of indication and Crew awareness.
o The status of the system (ECAM or FMA)
o The status of the mode (FMA)
o The nature of the information (e.g. title of an alert, action to be performed,
information).

Paper-less cockpit

- Improves the access to pilots' operational information and simplifies some of their tasks
- Reduces the number of paper documents in the cockpit and replaces them by electronic
ones:
o Improves information access and search
o Enables quicker and easier updates
ECAM Philosophy

- Abnormal or emergency situations can occur at any phase of the flight, from aircraft start up
to shut down.
- In the event that such situations occur, the PF is the crew who must initiate the actions
required to address the situation, using procedures taught in training.
- These procedures come in various forms and are listed by priority as follows:
o Memory Items (for time-critical situations)
o OEB Procedures
o ECAM Sensed Procedures
o ECAM Non-Sensed Procedures
o QRH Procedures
- These procedures, excluding Memory Items, are to be carried out with a “READ & DO”
method
o PF will fly the aircraft and also handle the communications with ATC
o PM will focus his mental capacities more in understanding the nature of the
procedure and how the abnormality is affecting the aircraft operation, and then
thereafter carrying out the required actions
- Procedures must be completed one at a time, unless:
o a particular action requests to consider/use another procedure
o the flight crew requires a reassessment of their situation/surroundings, e.g. Smoke
worsening or improving in the cabin
- ECAM procedures cannot cover all types of scenarios that the flight crew may experience,
hence it is important that the crew is able to exercise good judgement and flexibility to
adapt procedures to their given circumstances.

Handling of cockpit controls

- In flight, the following controls must be crosschecked by PF and PM:

o Thrust Levers (PF action only)
o ENG MASTER Lever
o IR Selector
o All guarded controls
o Reset/Power Supply buttons
- Actions on these controls will produce irreversible effects (except black-coloured guarded
controls), hence it is critical for crosscheck to be made in case of accidental activation.
- PM indicates the related control and requests confirmation from PF
o PM: “ENG 1 Master Lever OFF”
o PM: “ENG 1 Master Lever, …. Confirm?”
- PF verifies the control designated by the PM and gives confirmation to the PM
o PF: “Confirm.”
- PM operates the related control, as required
o PM: “Off.”
- In the case of Thrust Levers operation, PF will instead request confirmation from PM
o PM will then verify confirmation and PF will conduct the action thereafter.
Handling of Overhead Panel controls

- The controls located on the overhead panel are defined and labelled distinctively by the
aircraft system they belong to, e.g. Engine Fire pushbutton is located in the FIRE row
- A white label, indicating the aircraft system, is located on the left and right of each panel.
- PM will conduct actions by first calling out in the following sequence:
o Name of the system
o Name of the control, or Reset/Power supply button
o The action to be undertaken
- This mitigates the possibility that the PM would select the wrong panel as PF would be kept
aware of the actions that the PM is performing.
- After the selection of a control, PM should check the SD page, in order to verify that the
selected action was performed.

Handling of ECAM Procedures

- Should any abnormal situation arise during take-off or go-around, ECAM actions should not
be made until at least 400 ft AGL.
- This is to strike a fair balance between stabilising the aircraft (Fly and Navigate first) and
having the sense of urgency to address the abnormality.
- The crew may initiate the READ & DO actions below 400 ft AGL, provided that the flight path
is safe.
- PF will initiate the process by announcing “ECAM Actions”.
- Once PM has confirmed with PF to clear all ECAM procedures, the ‘STATUS’ page will display
next.
o PM announces “Status” and PF will reply with “Stop ECAM”
- At this point, PF considers any normal checklists, system reset, additional procedures, etc.
that have not been completed yet.
- After such consideration is complete, the PM will read out the affected items listed in
‘STATUS’
o This gives both PF and PM the chance to analyse the impact of the abnormality on
the aircraft
o This also aids in building up the PF’s decision later on.
- After all ‘STATUS’ messages have been read and clearly understood by both crew members,
PM can proceed to remove the ‘STATUS’ page and announce “ECAM Actions complete”
o PF would be formulating a decision in mind as to whether to continue the flight or
return back/divert to another airport.
o Other considerations are also brought in, such as fuel remaining, condition of
passenger and their safety, consultation with company, etc.
Flaps/Slats Retraction Schedule

- When speed is at least above F speed and a positive speed trend is shown, Flaps can be
retracted from Position 2/3 to Position 1.
- When speed is at least above S speed and a positive speed trend is shown, Flaps can be
retracted from Position 1 to Position 0.
- Noise Abatement Departure Procedures (NADP)
o NADP 1: maintain flaps until 3000 ft AAL, then retract flaps and accelerate
o NADP 2: maintain flaps until 1500 ft AAL, then retract flaps and accelerate

Abnormal situations

- Situations such as Reactive Windshear and Terrain Avoidance require the flaps configuration
to remain as it is.
- Retraction is only done after the aircraft has exited the abnormal condition.

Flaps/Slats Extension Schedule

The slats and flaps are extended during the approach phase and there are various types of
approaches which affect the timing in which the flaps and slats are deployed.

Decelerated Approach (Standard Approach)

- Select Flaps 1 by the Flaps 1 Pseudo waypoint, or when on intercept heading

- Select Flaps 2 by the Flaps 2 Pseudo waypoint, or when passing 2,500 ft AAL (10NM from
touchdown)
- After Landing Gear is extended, select Flaps 3
- Select Flaps FULL, such that the approach is stabilised by 1,000 ft AAL.

Stable Approach

- Used in situations where adverse conditions such as ATC restrictions, weather, or technical
defects (e.g. Flaps/Slats locked) prevent crew from carrying out a Standard Approach
- Select Flaps 1, when in the intermediate approach
- Select Flaps 2, when on the intercept heading
- At one dot below glideslope, select gear down. Subsequently, select Flaps 3.
- At glideslope capture, select Flaps FULL, and reduce speed to VAPP

Early Stabilised Approach

- In the case of Non-Precision Approaches (NPA), high glide path angle, low altitude
intermediate approach, etc., the aircraft should be stabilised by the Final Approach Fix (FAF)
- Hence, the flaps extension schedule should be shifted earlier to ensure compliance.
Flaps and Slats Protection systems

There are several protection systems built specifically for the Flaps and Slats system. These systems
are as follows:

Wing Tip Brakes (WTB)

- mechanically lock the slats/flaps transmission shaft when a runaway/asymmetry of flaps is

detected.
- In an event of Flaps Locked for example, the WTBs will be able to prevent asymmetry of
these secondary flight control surfaces, which left unchecked could cause imbalance of lift
between the wings,

Automatic Retraction System (ARS)

- When aircraft speed reaches 210 knots, if aircraft is in CONF 1+F, the ARS will retract the
flaps automatically such that the configuration is CONF 1

Automatic Extension System (AES)

- When aircraft speed goes below 203 knots, if the aircraft is in CONF 1, the AES will extend
the flaps automatically such that the configuration is CONF 1+F

Flap Load Relief System (FLRS)

- The FLRS is designed to alleviate aerodynamic loads on the wings, should the flight crew be
inadvertently not aware of VFE exceedance.
- When VFE + 2.5 knots is reached, FLRS become active and retracts one stage of flaps from
the current selected flaps setting.
- When VFE + 4 knots is reached, an Overspeed warning is triggered, alerting the crew of the
condition.

Slats Alpha/Speed Lock Function

- Prevents retraction of Slats to zero, should aircraft be at a high Angle-of-Attack (AoA) and/or
at a very low velocity.
- Mitigates the loss in lift and reduce risk of losing aircraft controllability.
- Function is active when Flaps Lever is SET to position 0, and will inhibit slats retraction if:
o AoA > 10.6 °, or
o Speed < 140 kt
- Function would not become active if Flaps Lever is already set to 0 and thereafter either of
the above conditions occur.
- Upon activation, the slats will retract to 0 when:
o AoA < 10.3 °, or
o Speed > 146 kt

Slats/Flaps Cruise Baulk Function

- During cruise, should Flaps Lever be accidentally moved from 0 to 1, the function will not
move the slats and flaps from their fully retracted position.
- Conditions for function to activate is if IAS > 265 kt, or aircraft is at or above 22,000 ft
- This function however will be overrode if other Flaps lever positions are selected (2, 3, FULL)
Types of PM Monitoring

Monitoring is a process which requires the necessary pre-requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes to
enable the crew to observe/detect any issues, understand their implications and project them into
the future, create a shared mental model of the situation, and make correct judgement/decisions
from there.

Predictive Monitoring

- PM, while not physically flying the aircraft, has a mental model of how the aircraft should be
flying, by comparing flight path parameters against known tolerances (air speed, bank angle,
configuration, etc.)
- PM is able to give support through anticipation of expected threats (e.g. weather via long
range weather radar scanning) and hence mitigate the consequences associated with those.

Passive Monitoring

- Continual scanning of flight instruments and displays that indicate what the aircraft is doing,
what state the aircraft is in and how it should correspond with the current phase of flight
- These include regular checking of the
o Flight Mode Annunciators (FMA) and Autopilot (AP) modes
 What is the aircraft doing now?
o Engine parameters
 Are the engines still operating normally?
o Attitude indicator
 Is the aircraft in an undesired state?
o Heading indicator
 Where is the aircraft going?
o Navigation Display
 Builds up better situational awareness

Active Monitoring

“Active monitoring is a proactive knowledge-driven process of encountering and keeping track of

how things are in relation to the perceiver and his expectations to enable the perceiver to take
meaningful action. Active monitoring involves proactively seeking relevant information, making
important information available, filtering information that is meaningless, creating new information
and off-loading cognitive processing onto the interface or adapting the interface to support
monitoring”

- Hence, it takes on a more involved approach to monitoring, where callouts are required and
crosschecking is essential
- These include:
o Engine parameters
 “EGT is rising rapidly towards 850 degrees”
o Flight parameters
 “Speed, speed”
o Aircraft configurations
 “Speed checked, Flaps 1”
o FMA
 “Thrust Idle, Open Descent, Heading” after PF initiates an emergency

descent
o Crosschecking navigation accuracies
 “NAV Primary lost”
 “EPU is more than RNP”
o Checking in on the other crew member
 Crew incapacitation
 “Captain, are you okay?” “I have controls”
o Crosschecking other crew’s actions
 PM: “Thrust lever 1 idle”
 PF: “Thrust lever 1 confirm?”
 PM: “Confirm” (after observing PF indicates the correct control)
 PF: “Idle”

Periodic Monitoring

- Checks are carried out at pre-defined time intervals to ensure systems are operating
normally and safely
- During the Cruise phase, PM will cycle through the various SD pages and observe any
anomalous readings that require attention
- These SD pages include:
o Engine
 Engine oil pressure and temperature
o Bleed
 Bleed parameters
o Electrics
 Electrical parameters and Generator Load
o Hydraulics
 Fluid quantity.
o Flight Controls
 Note any abnormal control surface position
o Fuel
 Fuel quantity and distribution
 Any signs of Fuel leak
o Door/Oxygen
 For oxygen pressure

Mutual Monitoring

- The actions of one crewmember is crosschecked by the other crewmember

- These include the following example:
o Altimeter changes
 PF: “Transition level. Set standard.”
 PM: “Standard set. Passing FL 70 now.”
 PF: “CHECKED.”
 PM: “Standard set, and crosschecked”
PM Support Process

- Essential communication tool designed for the First Officer when he is PM

- Allows for the assertiveness of the PM, which is important for safe flights
- The process is designed to enable PM to highlight any concerns he may have, and should the
need arise, raise these concerns to a higher degree of urgency.
- This process is split into 3 phases:

Guidance Phase

- Designed to promote teamwork and communication, hence building up the shared mental
model between the crew
- Does not diminish the command responsibility of the PF
- Most, if not all, situations should be resolved by this phase
- Commonly invoked through the words “Captain, I am concerned…”
- An example:
o “Captain, we are decelerating below Green dot speed. I am concerned that if we do
not extend Flaps 1 now, we might risk getting into a low speed situation later on.”

Procedural Phase

- PM provides a ‘Solution Statement’, which informs the PF of the increasing urgency to take
positive action and to resolve any ambiguous issues
- The Solution Statement includes the proposed action and the undesired consequences
- PF must respond to this and act accordingly ASAP
- An example:
o “Captain, increase speed now or we will risk entering into a stall.”

Emergency Statement Phase

- This phase is a last resort attempt to redirect the PF’s attention on a situation which may
turn critical any time.
- PM has to urge PF to take immediate actions to avoid any incidents or accidents from
occurring
- It is invoked with the words “CAPTAIN, YOU MUST ACT NOW”
o “Captain, you must act now. Go around now!”
- If PF fails to respond to the Emergency Statement, it should be deemed as the PF has been
incapacitated in some form
o A positive take-over of controls by the PM is necessary