With 6 screens, the odds of failure go up. But I guess I never thought I'd lose one.... Departing NRT for LAX. Rainy day. A bit of a lineup for takeoff. Cockpit view About 1500 miles from the west coast, my PFD just goes dark. Automatic switching kicks in and the info is presented on the inbound screen. Info on the inbound screen (ND, Navigaion Display) was switched manually to the lower EICAS screen. While not a big deal, I must say landing was a little bit different. You don't realize how much little things like this can have such an impact. While looking outside for landing, you're constantly looking back inside for airspeed and GS info. This is normal. You don't even think about where you look. You just look. It's strange when you go to look and the infos not there. You have to search a little for it. Anyways, just thought I'd share...... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
When that happens in my 747...I pull the plug and wait ten seconds and then plug it back in. But seriously, thanks for sharing. I love the posts and the pictures.
Fascinating stuff as always Lou, thanks for sharing. I guess this is more of a Q for the 'puter geeks, but I wonder how the system 'knew' your display had died? Sounds like the data was still there, just not being displayed; A somewhat common occurrence to anyone who lives in front of a monitor all day.... But, if the monitor dies, the 'puter just keeps on sending data, it doesn't know squat about a broken display. Cheers, Ian
BTW, also meant to ask; Doesn't the 'abc' style keyboard on the nav computer (?) drive you nuts!? I'm surprised its not a good ol' qwerty these days? Cheers, Ian
Not sure how he commercial guys do it but pulling the breaker and resetting is a standard fix on the military side. Call it the Lockheed fix, it's usually the first step in fixing any problem.
I've played around with them before, they're not that bad. You're not typically typing full on sentences with them, usually ICAO designations, waypoints, cruise alt, etc.
After I posted the Q it occurred to me they probably did it deliberately for that reason. Many of us type without really looking and 'assume' its all good. This thing slows you down and forces you to check I guess? (OK, I know they should read it back etc, but again, we tend to read what we expect to read.) One digit wrong may piss off the spelling nazis, but one wrong in a waypoint could get real interesting..... Cheers, Ian
If a waypoint is way off, you'll probably get a "route discontinuity" message. That or your next waypoint will show something like 12,000 nm away in the wrong direction LOL. Lou can probably answer that better since he uses a FMC every day. But you're right, you have to look at the keypad to type stuff in.
The non qwerty keyboard drives me nuts. Yes, you have to look, but looking doesn't help. I'm constantly "hunt and peck".
*That's* the response I was "expecting". It should at least be configurable, damnit!..... Or, make it reachable via Bluetooth? Cheers, Ian
*Hate* it when that happens! Also strikes to the heart of why I want a driver in the front left seat of any sucker I'm getting on. Cheers, Ian
Hey Lou, wasn't it you that told me covering my PDF while training would make me a "better" pilot...maybe this is Boeings way of keeping you on your toes.
Don't bet on that. If you are entering airway fixes, most FMSs will allow you to enter the airway and the ending point, and will fill in all the intermediate fixes. That helps quite a bit. The big issue is entering lat/long waypoints, for oceanic crossings. Most carriers have procedures for one pilot entering, and another checking-- often checking the bearing and distance between the fixes rather than just the numbers. Of course, in the 747 they may just download the flight plans via ACARS-- although they still need to be verified.
My Honeywell doe not autofill intermediate waypoints if I input my destination. I think that would drive me nuts. What if I don't want those waypoints?
I think you misunderstand. I said "airway". If you put in a fix, then J80, then an exit point, it should fill in the intermediate points. Some really old FMSs only filled in the points where there was a turn in the airway, and some don't know about airways at all (arguably shouldn't be called an "FMS").
Don, you're way past my meager knowledge of these things at this point. All I know is they're not the most intuitive things around. But the keypad on them really isn't that bad, honest! If you want to geek out on this stuff: Flight Management Computer
Yeah, we do the same. Unfortunately it didn't help this time. It does seem to fix most problems though.
Thanks Ian. I don't know how it knows, but yes, it knows and the data is still there. In the first pic, above the screens, you can see the instrument switching knobs. Ones labeled INBD CRT, and other LWR CRT. Inboard and lower respectively. Actually they're not CRTs, but LCDs, but the original 400s had CRTs. Anyways, with the INBD CRT in NORM, when the left screen dies (PFD) the info is automatically transferred to the INBD CRT (ND). In a later pic you'll notice both knobs have been switched manually. This forces the INBD to display PFD, and forces the LWR to ND. In the 747, the lower center screen is usually blank throughout the flight. It's used occasionally to pull up system info. But in this case I used it to replace the ND (Navigaion Display) I lost because of the transfer. Hopefully this makes sense....
Yeah, that was a thought. At NCA we have more Captains than FOs right now. We are in the process of hiring more FOs. So a lot of flights are composed of 2 Captains flying together. Sometimes 3 Captains on longer flights. When this happens, the Captain in the left seat flies. Although perfectly legal, the Captaiin in the right seat rarely does the flying. As the schedules alternate, everyone gets their fare share of flying. In the month of April, I'm scheduled for 8 flights. I'm an instructor and 2 of these are with new FOs. So that leaves 6 landings as the new FO's will fly those. 2 are as "extra or cruise" captain. So that's now 4. 2 of those are with Captains first -8 flights, so while PIC, I'll sit in the right seat for them. So that leaves me 2! The FO was another Captain on this flight, so we decided it was best to just fly it from the left seat. Yeah, 2 landings this month....... Next months schedule also has 8 flights. 1 as instuctor, 1 in the right seat, 5 as "extra" Captain and 1 as PIC. And that 1 will be with a recently checked out FO. So I'll let him have that 1. So 0 landings in May.
