Airliners: cold and dark or turn around

[Chock 17,769]

Just for a bit of info. When we used to do Thomas Cook airliners (A320s, 321s, 330s), they would quite often be towed off a main stand onto a remote stand for their overnight stay, so as to free up a less remote stand equipped with a jet bridge for other flights arriving and departing throughout the night. Whilst on the remote stands, we'd have to go and take GPUS out to them and power them up, since quite a lot of remote stands do not have a fixed electrical power connection. This was so that the cleaning crews would have cabin lights and be able to plug in their vacuum cleaners etc.

Quite often, the engineers would top up the oil levels and do other basic maintenance on the aeroplanes whilst they were on those remote stands. Following this, in the early hours of the morning, we would tow these airliners back onto a stand equipped with a jet bridge an hour or two before the aeroplane was due to depart on its first flight of the day, and they would generally be put on the FEP on those stands and 'warmed up a bit' (NAV system aligned etc, and any potential issues sorted out) so that the arriving first crew could get the thing out on time without encountering any issues. One important thing with this was to be extra careful with the walkaround check before the first departure, since there was always the possibility that an service panel had not been properly secured or a tool had been left in an engine nacelle or whatever (I found this to be the case several times).

So this is an aeroplane status you could realistically simulate by having the thing pretty 'good to go' when you get it up and running in your sim even though this is the first flight of the day. With those TC Airbuses, if they were not required to be towed off the stand overnight, they might stay connected to the FEP, but more often than not we would cut the power on these since there was no point in having it running all night (FEP at an airport is not free, it would cost several hundred pounds to leave it running all night). Generally speaking, these things would get cranked up on the FEP an hour or so before the crews arrived too.

It's worth noting that in spite of what 'serious simmers' (TM) might imagine to be the case, it's actually extremely rare for a crew to get to an aeroplane and find it completely dead electrically and hydraulically, and there is a very obvious reason for this too. I will illustrate this by giving you an example of a real first flight of the day of a British Airways A320 from Manchester Airport and exactly what goes on with it prior to the crew arriving on its flight deck.

So, let's consider BA Shuttle Flight 1385, which is an Airbus A320 departing from Stand 42 at Manchester at 07.00, destination Heathrow. This aeroplane came into Manchester the previous evening at 21.30, was offloaded and then stayed on stand with the FEP connected, but not actually switched on since once it was offloaded, there was nothing else done to it. Because it was going to be on the ground for more than three hours, it had six chocks placed on it rather than the typical four which are used on a 60 minute spin. BA1385 is going to have six AKH ULDs in its holds for its first flight in the morning, so that will be approximately 180 bags. Five of these ULDs will contain transfer bags, i.e. bags  coming off this flight and then being loaded onto another international flight from Heathrow, the sixth ULD will contain local bags, i.e. bags which will be collected by passengers at Heathrow as their final destination. Any bags (either local or transfer) which don't fit in the six ULDs which are planned to be on this aeroplane will be loaded loose into to rear bulk hold, although theoretically there is a limit on BA aeroplanes of no more than 20 bags in the rear bulk hold. This airline 'rule' frequently gets overruled out of necessity, so sometimes there might be a few more than twenty bags shoved in the back.

To facilitate this all happening, at 4 am, some poor sod (coincidentally, it was in fact me doing this today) has to check the computers to find out what flights are to be dealt with at terminal 3 and sort out the relevant paperwork and equipment (which for us is the one where we service BA, Vueling, Iberia, Loganair and Aurigny flights), then they go to the terminal 3 bag hall and set that up so that there will be six ULDs and a spare bulk trailer on carousel 18 ready for the bags which will drop onto that carousel to be loaded into those ULDs. This sounds fairly straightforward, but keep in mind that whilst that is going on, there is also BA Flight 2509 on stand 43 next to BA 1385. This is another A320 which came in last night and is due out at 07.05, bound for Gatwick, which will have three ULDs on it (two transfer and one local). So this one has to be dealt with simultaneously, not forgetting BA 8235 too, which is due out at 07.30, which is a Dornier 328 on stand 47,bound for Gothenburg. however this will probably only have about seven bags on it, so it won't take long to sort that out. so, first thing I have to do is find nine LD3 trailers with BA AKH ULDs on them. plus three curtain trailers and put these alongside carousels 18 and 19 in the T3 bag hall ready to use. Then I have to create the can cards for these so everything can be scanned in properly. all of this is so that all this stuff is ready to go at 6am when we'd actually go out to the aeroplanes to start working on them. So between 4am and 6am, prior to going out to the aeroplane to actually work on it, I've already been running around sorting stuff out, then scanned and chucked/stacked about 300 bags into various ULDs and trailers (bearing in mind most of these bags weigh about 30kgs, this is why you don't need a gym membership if you work on the ramp). Having then driven the various ULDs and trailers to their relevant stands..

Out on stand 42, the bypass pin is put into the nose gear of the A320 which will be operating flight BA 1385, then the towbar is connected and the tug is connected. The headset is plugged in to the aeroplane too so that all of this stuff will be ready later when things start happening fast. The jet bridge is already on from last night's disembarking passengers but the aeroplane is not powered up. So the cargo doors cannot be opened to load the ULDs onto the aeroplane. So, first we will scan the FEP's control panel with our ID to unlock it, then we'll turn that thing on and make sure it is operating properly (supplying 400 volts) somebody will then go up the steps on the exterior of the jet bridge and go into the cockpit and flip the switches to have the aeroplane use ground power. This will then mean the cargo doors can be opened hydraulically.

Since this powering up has to happen in order to load the aeroplane, and we need to do this well in advance of the flight crew arriving, not to mention anything the cleaners or engineers have to do which also requires the aeroplane to be powered up, this is why the flight crew very rarely board an aeroplane which is cold and dark and is why 'serious simmers' (TM) who think 'cold and dark' is the only way to be realistically playing with their toy aeroplane, are completely wrong about this. Of course it is their plane, so if they like doing that, there's nothing wrong with them doing so.

It's worth bearing in mind too that most of the time, flight crews will be sat on the transfer bus from the car park early in the morning with their tablet or phone, checking their flight plan, NOTAMs, weather etc so they're a bit more prepared. Then when they actually get to their crew room they'll do some of this stuff too. So, crews don't just rock up to the aeroplane first thing in the morning and then start working on that stuff when they sit down in the driving seat of the aeroplane, they've usually sussed a lot of that stuff out before they ever went near the aeroplane, or at least the decent ones who are well prepared would certainly do that.

So, BA 1385 is loaded up according to the load plan which the despatcher has sorted out so the various ULDs are in the right places to ensure the aeroplane is properly balanced (with six ULDs going on an A320, that might typically mean three in the front hold, then three into the wing in rear hold, with one into the rear-most position, leaving the doorway position as a nil fit empty slot). There might then be some late arriving 'gate bags' which would be shoved in the rear bulk hold. But we're not done yet...

If any passengers don't turn up, their bags cannot fly unaccompanied (this is a security measure for obvious reasons), so when you hear on the airport PA system some gate staff person making a final call for passenger Joe Bloggs to hurry up and get to gate 42, whilst that is happening, down on the ramp everyone will be cursing because it means they'll have to offload however many ULDs it takes to be able to get to the specific ULD which Joe's bag is in, then having offloaded it, open that ULD up, pull all the bags out until they find his bag, then stick all the bags back in minus Joe's bag. Then having done that, what usually happens is, Joe finally turns up and boards the aeroplane, and so his bag has to be put back into the can and loaded back on (I'm not joking, this is a really common occurrence and its why we never clear the belt or hi-loaders out of the stand clearway and back out of the way to a storage bay, until we know for sure the plane is zipped up for good). This is one of the main reasons why flights set off a few minutes late on occasion.

With all that done, we clear all the GSE out of the way, do a walkaround check, and then the thing gets pushed out (hopefully for BA 1385, on time at 7am). Then it's off to the Gatwick A320 on the adjacent stand to push that one out, then off to stand 47 to push the Dornier out, then over to stand 4 to meet the incoming Aer Lingus A320 from Dublin to spin that, and so on. This gives you some idea of the pace of things in commercial aviation, so now you know why most of these aeroplanes are not cold and dark when the crew gets on them.

Airliners like the A320 cost about 100 million quid each, and that's an investment which takes years to pay off. They don't make any money when sat on the ground doing nothing, which is why airlines rarely leave them doing nothing with everything switched off if they have any choice in the matter, and that includes doing maintenance on them overnight, or as noted above, being loaded or cleaned etc, which sees them being powered up.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Chock

[Azapata87 173]

I do cold and dark but often skip checklists and use my own mental flow.. rarely I’ll forget a step like setting take off trim and autobrakes. I just like pressing switches and operating the machine. 
 

Often it’s  like I just jumped in the plane and have to rush to power the plane on and get out of the airport before the monsters from The Langoliers eat the plane. 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Azapata87

[mwilk 1,106]

Another issue that we encountered here in the US after 9/11. Any aircraft that overnighted on a gate equipped with a jetway, once the aircraft was shut down for the night the jetway had to be removed from the aircraft which meant that the ground power had to be disconnected. In the morning when we came in we had to pull the jetways up to the aircraft and either attach ground power or start the APU's. Some crews got downright hostile if they came out to the aircraft and it was either very cold or very hot.

[Max Kraus 339]

I really think the "turn around" state is just that the plane has power from the GPU. And that happens to be step 1 in the CD startup process.  A few clicks, maybe the ADIRS stay aligned also?

APU, lights, FMC programming etc -  is all flight specific.

[RaptyrOne 1,430]

Used to work for a regional airline. At a home base or any other base where an engineer was stationed, the flight crew would go into meltdown if they arrived at an aircraft that was cold and dark. Flying it was fine but waking it up was a step too far. 🤣 Aircraft were not left on overnight but they were powered up about 60-90 minutes before the first flight of the day. Even if it required APU (i.e no GPU available). As @Chock says, quite rare for a flight crew to do cold and dark starts but of course each airline operator will have their own SOP’s in this regard.

Even fuelling was usually handled prior to the crew arriving at the aircraft as the engineers were in contact with Flight Ops and would begin refuelling as soon as the crew signed off on their flight plan, while still in the ops office.

Edited June 14, 2022 by RaptyrOne

[Chock 17,769]

6 hours ago, Azapata87 said:

I do cold and dark but often skip checklists and use my own mental flow.. rarely I’ll forget a step like setting take off trim and autobrakes. I just like pressing switches and operating the machine. 
 

Often it’s  like I just jumped in the plane and have to rush to power the plane on and get out of the airport before the monsters from The Langoliers eat the plane. 

Great fun movie, notwithstanding the ropey monster effects, but what I want to know is, how did they get the steps off that Tristar in the Langoliers after they had all boarded. Who disconnected the GPU, then removed the chocks and pushed it off the stand, so they could taxi it out to the runway? 🤣 To be fair, you can taxi straight off some remote stands and they could have started it without an FEP and removed the chocks prior to doing that, but there is no way they could have got the steps clear of the aeroplane unless someone climbed up a rope into the aeroplane after doing that, but we won't let facts spoil a fun movie.

As you say, it's not uncommon for crews to forget a step on their checks, which is why they do a quick last minute run through of the down to the line checks. Yesterday for example, I was just about to go off shift after a mad day mostly in the bag hall and was asked to stay back another half hour or so in order to do the headset on a Loganair ATR-72. since the ATR does not have an APU and they don't normally want to use the batteries for a start, these have their starboard engine cranked in 'hotel mode' whilst on stand using the power from the FEP/GPU, i.e. with the propeller brake engaged so the prop isn't spinning. After that is started, we disconnect the power and then we push it out as normal. Yesterday I found the headset wasn't working, so I had to revert to using hand signals with the crew, which is no big deal, but they had forgotten to turn the anti-collision beacon on, so I had to tell them, with hand signals, that they hadn't switched that on before I could okay them to crank number two in hotel mode. This sort of thing happens on occasion; it's why we check that stuff too. 🙂

 

[tup61 1,583]

 

10 hours ago, Roy Warren said:

Sorry Tup61 for butting in on your thread, but I was running out of ideas.

No problem at all! 😉

 

9 hours ago, Chock said:

this is why the flight crew very rarely board an aeroplane which is cold and dark and is why 'serious simmers' (TM) who think 'cold and dark' is the only way to be realistically playing with their toy aeroplane, are completely wrong about this.

Great post, great information, thanks! I will make the turn around state of the Fenix my default (even though that one has the APU running and not the GPU...).

[SAS443 1,727]

1 hour ago, Chock said:

but they had forgotten to turn the anti-collision beacon on, so I had to tell them, with hand signals, that they hadn't switched that on before I could okay them to crank number two in hotel mode

Not sure they actually forgot?

The Normal Procedures from ATR calls for Beacon ON before Prop rotation. Not when starting no2 in Hotel mode. Unless you have some local procedures at the ramp where you work.

ATR has the "WING LIGHTS" (each side of fwd fuselage) to inform that Hotel Mode is started, not the beacon,
(I also work at an airport with airside/apron access and see it happen quite often)
 

Edited June 14, 2022 by SAS443

[Shack95 2,658]

22 hours ago, micstatic said:

 I do each and every flight in cold and dark because I'm a sucker for switches, buttons and dials. 

Haha same here. I mostly start from cold and dark no matter if it‘s realistic or not. As a child I loved cockpits. I remember building cockpits by arranging radios, a compass, a barometer and all sorts of devices I could find that had buttons and switches to play airplane or space shuttle. I guess part of why I like simming is because it appeals to the child in me (although I don‘t „play“ pilot anymore; well, okay, simming essentially is playing pilot, but I don‘t imagine or act like I was a pilot, you know what I mean). 

[Chock 17,769]

12 hours ago, SAS443 said:

Not sure they actually forgot?

The Normal Procedures from ATR calls for Beacon ON before Prop rotation. Not when starting no2 in Hotel mode. Unless you have some local procedures at the ramp where you work.

ATR has the "WING LIGHTS" (each side of fwd fuselage) to inform that Hotel Mode is started, not the beacon,
(I also work at an airport with airside/apron access and see it happen quite often)
 

Yup, they forgot to put it on when they were cleared to push.

[Sylle 48]

On 6/14/2022 at 1:29 AM, Chock said:

Since this powering up has to happen in order to load the aeroplane, and we need to do this well in advance of the flight crew arriving, not to mention anything the cleaners or engineers have to do which also requires the aeroplane to be powered up, this is why the flight crew very rarely board an aeroplane which is cold and dark and is why 'serious simmers' (TM) who think 'cold and dark' is the only way to be realistically playing with their toy aeroplane, are completely wrong about this. Of course it is their plane, so if they like doing that, there's nothing wrong with them doing so.

@Chock

are you telling me that the A320 needs a fully powered flight deck so that servicing the aircraft can take place?? (Cleaning, functional cabin lighting, loading the holds, fueling)

Most Boeings just needs ground power to be plugged in and with one flick of a switch on the cabin attendant panel a very small part of the electrical system gets powered to allow all servicing activities to take place while the flight deck stays completely dark. 
 

It’s actually very common in my airline for FCM to get into a cold and dark cockpit in the morning or after a crew change. 
The 787 is an exception as apparently it doesn’t like to be electrically depowered 

 

Cheers,

Sylvain

[pete_auau 1,163]

On 6/14/2022 at 6:46 AM, Roy Warren said:

Have tried this numerous times and it doesn't work for me.  The AP won't engage. 

Roy

than  you  have  missed  some   info  thats  needed  most likely  the  v   speeds or  some  thing  simple sure  that  you  will get  it  soon got  both  fds on  i  gather,  aircraft in  level flight 

Edited June 15, 2022 by pete_auau

[Chock 17,769]

2 hours ago, Sylle said:

@Chock

are you telling me that the A320 needs a fully powered flight deck so that servicing the aircraft can take place?? (Cleaning, functional cabin lighting, loading the holds, fueling)

It could theoretically use the battery, but since nobody wants to do that and flatten it, it needs either the APU running, or the FEP or a GPU connected in the nose socket, then this selected on the overhead switches in the cockpit as the power source so it can provide galley power for the cabin electrics, lights, power sockets etc, and will be able to power the hydraulic pumps so there is hydraulic pressure to open the cargo hold doors. If you open the locks on an A320's cargo doors without it being powered, they do drop open a few inches, and if you then operated the hydraulic switch you would find that there is a tiny bit of residual pressure which might open it a few inches more before dissipating, but it wouldn't get it anywhere near fully open.

We don't always use the lights in the holds when loading cargo, but of course they'd only work if the things was actually powered up. The fueler needs the fuel info panel to be powered too of course. In fact you can manually pump the cargo doors open on an A320, but this is only used if the regular powered door system is faulty; you have to get a special pump lever out of stowage, and it takes two people to do it anyway (one to work the pump and the other to hold the switch lever on the open setting). The A320 (if it is a ULD-carrying variant, as most are) needs power for the cargo floor roller system too, although sometimes this is busted, which means you have to manually push the cargo cans into position, this is a pain in the neck because  any cargo can you load into the aeroplane fills the doorways space and you can't get to the side to go in and push it, so you then have to rock it back and forth a bit to move it so you can then go in and push it. On dedicated cargo A321s with two cargo decks, this would be very hard to do (I know, we had to do this on a Lufthansa one the other day!). The only cargo door on an A320 which does not require power to open it is the bulk hold door, which has a pop out and turn handle, and then you push it in and up.

This is an advantage of the B737; it has manually operated cargo doors which function the same as the bulk door on the A320, so you can load a 737 without it being powered up because you can open the cargo doors without power. On the A319, there is no bulk door though, so that one definitely needs the doors powered in order to be able to load it.

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Chock

[Sylle 48]

I understand you need some form of AC power to be able to open big cargo doors and refuel but again... why would it need to have a fully powered flightdeck to do that?

On a B757/767, you just press the ground service bus switch on the forward attendant panel (with ground power plugged in) and everything you described above works while the flightdeck itself remains cold and dark...

Seems strange to me that Airbus would not have a similar system.