I was reading on the A380 and found this little snippet on their homepage: "The Brake-to-Vacate system, designed by a multinational Airbus team, will help ease airport congestion and reduce the amount of time an aircraft remains on the runway. Enabling pilots to select a runway exit while the aircraft is making its landing approach, Brake-to-Vacate uses the auto-flight, flight controls, and auto-brake systems to regulate deceleration after touchdown. This allows the aircraft to reach a specified exit at the correct speed under optimum conditions. The system will be offered as an option on all A380s by 2007, and will be followed by retrofits available on all of other Airbus aircraft Families."That would be quite a cute little feature to have in a certain company's eventual A320 though I suspect it won't happen. I have to wonder what database contains the list of runway turn-offs?I'm sure one of you knows. =)

What's next? Auto taxi to the gate? Who needs pilots anymore?! ;)Karsten

Hmmm interesting. Not quite sure how it would work in practice. I cant help thinking what would happen if you floated a wee bit on touchdown. Would it then jam the brakes on and have everyone whack their heads on the video screens when it would have been simpler just to have taken the next turn off? Considering it's wake turbulence category I cant see the hurry to vacate the runway :)CheersSteve

On this same line of discussion, what 747 autobrake settings equate to a 'comfortable' deceleration for passengers? I presume anytihng level 3 and beyond is a bit extreme? It strikes me that using half of a 3,000M long runway is a bit drastic unless you were asked to expedite vacating the runway. I originally used to use a lot of braking to get the aircraft off the runway quick-smart, but now I tend to use Autobrakes 2 as a maximum unless weather is bad or (obviuously) the runway is short.Though last night I landed my ERJ at KLAX with the parkbrakes set (I must have pressed the joystick assignment by accident somewhere).Boy, that sucker stopped on a dime I tell ya!

Mark you are on the right track with autobrakes at level 2. That is our normal setting. It is mandatory for us to use a setting of 3 on a cat 2 or greater approach. Level 3 to 4 is used at places like Rarotonga (NCRG) due to the short runway and 'aircraft carrier' type approach. Must try that one in the sim if it is there. Good fun and should sort the men from the boys :)CheersSteve

>Considering it's wake turbulence category I cant see>the hurry to vacate the runway :)Steve,my thoughts exactly! What's the hurry to vacate the runway if ICAO requires ATC to have half an earth's orbit spacing behind an A380? ;)Ah right, maybe Airbus engineers are planning that system for the future... After all a possible double-stretch A380-1000 behind a A380-800 MIGHT just be enough to apply a "normal" separation. Until then I doubt that A380 pilots will ever hear the phrase "expedite vacating there's traffic on short final"... unless ATC messed it up ;)Regards,Markus

NCRG is there but not well represented, the topography doesn't really do it justice.I think there is a freeware cook islands mesh and airport somewhere, maybe it was for FS2002 though. Avsim will have it most likely.I DO recall it being pretty short, yeah!In the 737NG sim I work at we have a competition going amongst the instructors for short field landings, my record is a 700M landing roll at Napier (NZNR) at close to full payload and you can bet I was standing on the brakes there!

ICAO have currently set the separation to 10 Nm (15Nm on cruise). Airbus are doing tests to provide accurate data so that the distance to a 747 following for example is 6Nm (currently 747 following 747 4Nm). Also the A 380 can follow another heavy more closely, for example a 747 at 3Nm.

Hello,In the CDu you can select a distance remaining for take of when not using the full runway lengh.This distance is given on charts, or even on sign along side the runway.For landing, it will be the same, the pilot will enter the runway distance from touch down to elected exit. Then the CDU will caculate the required brake pressure to have a constant deceleration to reach the exit speed at the good speed.Just my 2 cents.Other variable will be included, such as wind, wet or dry, ETC...Cyrille de LattreAsus P4P800/PIV 3 Ghz/2 Giga DDRAMATI X800 GT 256 MegWin XP SP2 / FS9.1 PSS Beta tester

I think Airbus should stick to trying to sort out some of the major issues it currently has with the A380. Gimmickery such as this braking system are just unnecessary and will just add weight to an already overweight/underpowered aircraft. Get the basic airframe going well first ...then brag about gimmicks.CheersSteve

Awww, don't say that about the sweet fatty of the sky. I imagine it will be awhile before we get a PMDG/FeelThere-quality A380 on the market. I cannot imagine how awful modeling all those display would be especially the one with the track ball and GUI.

Its going to be while before we see a 'feel there quality' A380 for real on the market never mind a simulation.CheersSteve

Hmmm, not a fan I presume? :-)I have to admit it's pretty unattractive in the nose region. Certainly nothing like that 'sailing ship of the sky' look that the 747 has in my opinion. Purely on aesthetics alone, everytime I get on the 747 I think 'voyage', whereas everytime I get on an airbus I think 'commute' for some reason. :-)