yawdamper

Oh, you too? We must be acquainted! What a small world...

Check temperature to boil water - But then you'd need to depressurize the cabin, so it might be just a tad easier to read the gauge on the overhead. Drop someone from the pilots window and time how long until impact! - How do you know when the pilot hits ground? You could jump with him and then you'd know how high you were... But now the aircraft is left without pilots.... Coming back to 'What would the cabin rate indicate?' Well, I've never tried it (yet!) but my vote would be: the indicator would show a much lower descent rate since it is calibrated in sea-level-equivalent fpm. The pressure change for a 100 foot altitude difference at sea level is much higher than at 35000 ft, so even if the aircraft is descending at 1500 fpm, at sea level the pressure difference would be much lower. Of course the cabin itself would descend at a similar rate (minus any dynamic effect) as the aircraft, but I was specifically asking for the cabin rate indicator Standing by to getting shot down... YD

Hi All, ok let's go: Sitting in the cockpit with everything set up, how would you know if the spoilers extend when rotating the control wheel? Remember, the EFIS 737 doesn't have flight control displays. And no peaking outside the window!Hydraulic pressure change? - with the EDP and EMDP running, you shouldn't see a noticeable drop in pressure. Hydraulic Quantity indication decreasing (as fluid gets caught in the extended cylinders) - yupp Assuming you have all static ports blocked (no altimeter). You took off, flew the numbers according to QRH and at some point levelled off. What ways can you think of to get an estimate of your altitude (MSL or AGL)? (Aircraft was just painted and someone did a really bad job during the preflight :-) )GPS alt readout - yupp WX radar trick - yupp (actually learned this one at LFT!) Cabin depressurization - yes, I suppose :-) Military radar - yupp Formation flying - yupp, in VMC. Calculating time from takeoff and the medial climbrate (climbrate * time), you should get AGL. - ah but without static ports, your climb rate will be unknown. The IVSI will jump around based on IRS vertical acceleration data, but without a change in static pressure, it will settle down at 0 FPM gradually. If you have a OAT (or similar) and probably some ISA dev and temperature at ground, you may calculate the the altitude MSL. I'm just guessing here, as I've not learned the procedure for this, but it should be possible. - works as long as the atmosphere is behaving according to ISA. An inversion layer will tell you you have descended below your departure airport elevation :-) I can think of two more methods (one obvious). The F/O's course selector is not responding to changes. What could this indicate?Mechanical failure - yupp MCP freeze - yupp Elec bus failure - yes, in fact it's the battery bus that powers the right MCP CRS selector If the airplane symbol appears in the lower right corner of the EHSI - what does this indicate?Answer: indicates a frozen display. It's worth a try to switch both EFI to the opposite side. The CRT wears out and suddenly there is a color loss in the EADI. What implications could this have on landing in bad weather? I can't see the ILS glideslope magenta point? - the glideslope indicator will still be visible, it just won't be magenta. The colour is required for autoland, because the FMA is written in "green" and if that colour fails, you could not verify the autopilot status during a low-vis approach. - yupp! You are having a very bad day (obviously!) and now all 4 CRT's are black/white (complete loss of color). Any implications?This is mostly due to lack of airflow (equipment cooling). The CRT´s might shut down at a later stage, depending on how the internal temperature develops. Try to re-instate airflow by going to an alternate ventilation system. - yes, this indicates both SGs are overheating. According to my notes, both EADI/EHSI displays will shut down after 90 minutes. Ok a small follow up regarding the 'depressurize cabin to get alttiude estimate' trick: assuming you are somewhere at FL350 (ok bad idea to depressurize). Your static ports suddenly clear up and the IVSI is indicating that you are descending at 1500 fpm. Assuming the outflow valves are fully open and the cabin has had enough time to reduce pressure differential to 0 PSI. Both packs are off. What would the cabin rate indicate? 1500 fpm cabin descent?Higher than 1500 fpm descent rate?Lower than 1500 descent rate? And why? Regards YD

Folks, while waiting, I thought it would be nice to have a thread with some quiz questions regarding the 737 where you won't typically find the answer in the FCOM. Sitting in the cockpit with everything set up, how would you know if the spoilers extend when rotating the control wheel? Remember, the EFIS 737 doesn't have flight control displays. And no peaking outside the window!Assuming you have all static ports blocked (no altimeter). You took off, flew the numbers according to QRH and at some point levelled off. What ways can you think of to get an estimate of your altitude (MSL or AGL)? (Aircraft was just painted and someone did a really bad job during the preflight :-) )The F/O's course selector is not responding to changes. What could this indicate?If the airplane symbol appears in the lower right corner of the EHSI - what does this indicate?The CRT wears out and suddenly there is a color loss in the EADI. What implications could this have on landing in bad weather?You are having a very bad day (obviously!) and now all 4 CRT's are black/white (complete loss of color). Any implications?Let's start with that :-) Regards YD

Yes - speed matters. But also pitch rate. Speaking of the 737: An over-zealous rotation at the correct speed can also cause a tail strike. Not so much of a risk on the classic (although it has happened!) but more so on the longer -800s and -900s (never flew them, but it's longer than the -800). With flaps 1 there is not a lot of room for error (some carriers make it their SOP to always use F5 for T/O to reduce risk of tail strike). And let's not forget the landing - that's where the majority of tail strikes actually happen. Again, over-zealous pitch-up to arrest a high ROD or letting speed decay below Vref is setting yourself up for trouble. Having said that, you shouldn't really have trouble with the -300 as long as you don't yank back at Vr or don't stall in the flare.

Thanks Tyler, Nils for your comments. Needless to say, very impressive! I'm looking forward how the aircraft will evolve as time goes by after the release. Regards YD

Hi IXEG-Team, after reading all the exciting information on your blog and watching the great videos by Jan, I have a few questions if you have modeled these 'advanced' features: Possibility to transfer hyd fluid from A to B or vice versa using Boeing 'tricks'?Flap transit speeds affected by hyd pressure / pump volume output and airspeed?Auto-slat extension during stall?Will the aircraft behave differently in manual reversion, like reduced roll rate / uncoordinated turns? Lower response to control yoke deflections? Of course, some improvisation would be needed since in reality superman could still move the yoke with the same speed as with hydraulic pressure so the aircraft's responsiveness would be similar (minus the speed brakes), still it would be nice to have some form of difference.Single A/P autoland capabiltiy. Although this is not certified, the 737 will land just fine (even flare) with a single A/P. Call it an undocumented feature by Mr. Boeing :-)Will 'abuse' somehow be simulated? I'm thinking things like gradually overheating hyd fluid with very low fuel (missing heat exchange), cavitating hyd pumps without bleed air at high altitudes, hung or hot starts when introducing fuel prematurely or with low bleed air pressure (ex trying to start both engines simultaneously), avionic failures without equipment coolingI'm well aware that these are very special 'features' probably 95% of your customer base will never miss / notice and some of them are not even modeled on real level D sims (as I'm sure Jan can testify to). Still, I think you guys will set the bar at a new level regarding system simulation depth as far as I see :-) Good luck with your release, YD

Don't forget, the 737 has a CWS mode for pitch and roll. If you exceed a certain amount of force with the autopilot in CMD (and an active green mode), it will revert to CWS for either roll or pitch. Regards YD