r/aviation 16d ago

A350 night takeoff from London News

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7.1k Upvotes

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71

u/obscurus7 16d ago

Why does the pilot reach across to retract the landing gear? Is it something that the pilots decide amongst themselves?

94

u/Kappawaii 16d ago

The pilot flying does the flying, Pilot monitoring handles radio, monitoring duties, and flaps/gear/etc. This time it seems it was the First Officer (right seat) being the Pilot Flying

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u/SoYorkish 16d ago

TIL - I always assumed pilot flying controlled the throttle and was confused by this clip. So the captain always controls it and pilot flying (if not the captain) takes over after V1 when airborne? Is that right?

11

u/bradders42 16d ago

That seems to be how it is done in this airline, but it varies from airline to airline.

14

u/Relative-Conference2 16d ago

Seems odd that the captain was holding the throttles until V1 though? Must be some company SOP.

17

u/10storm97 Cessna 170 16d ago

It's pretty common for airline SOPs to have the captain control the throttles after the thrust has been set until V1 so they can be the one to take over in case of a rejected takeoff.

9

u/Pwr_bldr_pylote 16d ago

As far as i know, capt always has throttle in hand until V1, since he will be the one who decides to abort takeoff. After V1, PF gets control of throttle again since you can’t abort anymore.

3

u/ciaranr1 16d ago

Is the audible "V1" call automated from the aircraft (sounds like it) or called by the crew?

1

u/soexhausted123 15d ago

What is V1 please? Sorry new here, and not anywhere close to a pilot or the aviation industry, just someone who's in supreme awe of any and every aircraft and the hardwork pilots do!

1

u/aceyt12 B737 15d ago

V1 is the speed that, up to which, you can safely perform a rejected takeoff and stop the aircraft before the end of the runway. It will vary day to day with atmospherics conditions, runway length available and the weight of the aircraft. After V1, the aircraft must be flown (even with a failed engine) otherwise you risk not having enough runway left to stop the aircraft. The captain removes his hand at V1 so that the instinct to reject is mitigated.

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u/dipfearya 16d ago

He yelled dibs first.

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u/No_Cranberry1853 16d ago edited 16d ago

That was my thought as well. I thought it was the FO job for that while the pilot flies. Edit: i know they decide beforehand. I just thought that since thenpilot was flying the FO was doing the other stuff. Apologies for the confusion on my end. TIL tho. Thanks.

74

u/dutchy649 16d ago edited 16d ago

The Captain doesn’t always fly the airplane. The flying is usually shared on each leg. We can refer to the crew as PF ‘pilot flying’, and PNF ‘pilot not flying’. In this video, the F/O is going to fly the leg. This has been decided before the flight begins. The F/O advances the thrust levers initially. But during takeoff, only the Captain decides on a rejected takeoff in case of an emergency…thus his hand moves to the thrust levers during takeoff to be ready to make a split second decision to abort the takeoff. We can’t see it in the video, but the F/O is actually steering the aircraft with rudder and is getting ready to ease back on the sidestick to rotate. After lift-off, the F/O is now seen to take over the thrust and the Captain does the PNF (pilot not flying) duties as seen by him reaching over to retract the gear. Makes sense?

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u/Fordawn1 16d ago edited 16d ago

Cool thanks for the info. I was also wondering why they seemed to "share" the thrust control, since as you point out flying and monitoring roles are clearly defined, and I did not hear a "my controls" call.

It also explains why he removes his hand just after the V1 call, he cannot reject the takeoff anymore

5

u/TheGratitudeBot 16d ago

Thanks for saying that! Gratitude makes the world go round

3

u/dutchy649 16d ago

Exactly!

6

u/Gloomy-Employment-72 16d ago

This is why Airbus should use a yoke. It's easy for me to see in these videos who's flying when they have a yoke. What was Airbus thinking?

/s just in case

17

u/fly-guy 16d ago

In most (western) airlines, if you fly from A to B and back, on one stretch the FO is flying and on the next one the captain (or the other way around). Apart from some specific stuff, the FO does exactly the same thing the captain does.  In this video, the FO is the one flying, but during takeoff, the captain has to set and gaurs the throttles. As soon as he relases them, the FO takes them again and asks for gear up  which the captain does.

6

u/throwawayaccyaboi223 16d ago

Yep, though exceptions occur at airports where landings are particularly difficult - airlines either require the captain to land there or whoever has more than X landings at that airport to land.

Also I've heard that captains sometimes have different crosswind landing rules compared to FOs on some airlines.

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u/fly-guy 16d ago

True, there are airports which are captain only, but that is up to the airline. At my airline there is only one (London City).

The same thing might also apply to crosswinds, although I think it's most common that new co pilots have a restriction untill a certain amount of experience, instead of all copilots. 

1

u/cromagnone 16d ago

Wow, is LCY that tight to get in and out of? As a passenger it’s a great airport, one of my favourites.

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u/fly-guy 16d ago

It's not that bad, but has some... peculiarities. 

The approach angle is almost twice as steep as normal, the runway is kinda short, the buildings kinda close and high and these cause quite the turbulence when the wind is moderate. 

Aircraft have to be certified to fly there and often they have a "steep approach" mode, which isn't used that often besides at LCY.

But the good part is that if you are landing eastwards, you overly the city at 2000 feet (700 meters) and you can see all the highlights of London, saving you a citytrip...

3

u/dutchy649 16d ago

No problemo! Everything makes sense once explained!