Hi All,

 

I know the answer is probably staring me in the face from the manuals but does anyone know what the 3 click wheels on the control column are used for ?

 

Best wishes

 

Simon Grant

Remembering the flight number or anything else the pilots find them useful for.

As far as I know they are only memory wheels. Fore example, if the tower clears you to FL 120 you could enter 120 there in case you get worried that you would forget it.

 

HTH

Manfred

 

EDIT: Ryan beat me to it

As far as I know they are only memory wheels. Fore example, if the tower clears you to FL 120 you could enter 120 there in case you get worried that you would forget it.

 

HTH

Manfred

 

EDIT: Ryan beat me to it

 

You would set the MCP altitude to 12,000 if you're cleared for that altitude.

Ok, that figures. Thanks for the replies

 

Simon Grant

You would set the MCP altitude to 12,000 if you're cleared for that altitude.

My post: For example, if the tower clears you to FL 120 you could enter 120 there in case you get worried that you would forget it.

 

As you can see this is an example. You could still enter 120. But I admit that it was quite a bad choice for an example.

As others have noted, it is a memory aid and is most commonly used for the flight number, although you could use it for headings or reference speeds etc.

 

A classic example of where referring to that possibly might have been useful, is when Speedbird 38, a BA Triple Seven, suffered a dual engine shutdown on finals to Heathrow and undershot the runway. If you listen to the ATC recording of that, the pilot - Cpt Peter Burkhill - actually gives the wrong callsign when he transmits the mayday, in fact using the callsign that he was due to use on his next flight the following day, since having almost landed when disaster struck, he was probably mentally closing the book on his present flight and thinking of the next one. He also tansmits the evacuation message over ATC rather than over the PA initially, before correcting himself and repeating it on the PA, you hear it on the ATC recording.

 

Obviously he was under a lot of stress at the time, so these are understandable minor errors, the thing he did get right was the one which mattered most - getting the plane down in one piece by using very good CRM judgement, but it is an example of how when you are under pressure, that little thing on the control column can be a useful aid to memory if you have more important stuff to think about.

 

Al

Nice one Alan, thats a really good example. Here is the recording if anyone is interested:

 

Respect to the ATC, he did an amazing job.

 

EDIT: Found the radar screen as well, but it has bad audio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJeEl0-1sjM

I personally always use them for the flight number. Of course the 737 is the only plane in our fleet that has that so whenever I leave it for something else I'm gonna have to find another way to remind me of the number.

 

As I understand that 777 accident the egines did not shut down but they did not respond to the throttle inputs. If I recall correclty it was because of the prolonged descent at idle the fuel cooled and ice crystals formed restricting fuel flow. Not long after that accident we had a 777 going to LAX that had one engine fail to respond on final approach but the company said it was a very different problem but never gave any real details.

Yup, ice in the fuel feed pipes, was dislodged on the descent owing to throttle changes and turbulence, and carried through to the front of the fuel oil heat exchanger, blocking it sufficiently for first the starboard, and then the port engine to cease responding to the autothrottle as the aircraft passed through about 700 feet AGL. So the engines were effectively stuck at idle.

 

The Captain decided to let the co-pilot continue handling, since a handling switch would have been disruptive at that time, but he did alter the flap setting, which allowed Speedbird 38 to clear obstructions on the approach and come down just short of the runway, that decision probably saved a lot of lives.

 

Peter Burkhill, the Captain of Speedbird 38, and his wife Maria, wrote a really interesting book - Thirty Seconds to Impact - about the wider aspects of the incident and its investigation, as well as how he had to deal with the press etc. It's worth a read if you are interested in that kind of thing.

 

Al

Peter Burkhill, the Captain of Speedbird 38, and his wife Maria, wrote a really interesting book - Thirty Seconds to Impact - about the wider aspects of the incident and its investigation, as well as how he had to deal with the press etc. It's worth a read if you are interested in that kind of thing.

 

Definitely am. Thanks for the pointout.

in fact using the callsign that he was due to use on his next flight the following day, since having almost landed when disaster struck, he was probably mentally closing the book on his present flight and thinking of the next one

 

Are you sure of the flight number?

Sounds weird to me that a pilot is mentally closing his flight before landing...

 

Isn't this a more acceptable explanation?

 

"they use call sign speedbird 95 in simulator and emergency simulations, pilot reverted back to his training"

 

 

Bert Van Bulck

Are you sure of the flight number?

Sounds weird to me that a pilot is mentally closing his flight before landing...

 

While your example of mental reversion is certainly a good argument, have you ever mentally checked out while at work? A pilot's work is still work, despite it being different from many other "normal" jobs. The brain is a very complex piece of work. Sometimes it just isn't up to the task one day. It's the nature of being human. Granted, it's important for a pilot to make sure that doesn't happen (or if it does, that it doesn't happen often), but it's still possible.

Where is this that the OP is talking about?

Where is this that the OP is talking about?

 

On the yoke.