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Disclaimer: First off I would never assume I am in the same peer group of knowledge of an airline pilot with giga thousand hours of flying.

Having said that, I grew up around planes and find ultra detail procedure stuff interesting. I have a few questions if any pro out there is willing to tollerate my endless quest of knowledge on this topic.

-Do some modern airliners have voice audibles now that call off the final altitude on approach when on final approach? Example, I was "flying" MS 2004 Flight Simulator ( here is where the pro rolls there eyes... Rolling Eyes

) ... and I was "flying" a Bombardier CRJ700 on final approach for the first time. ( this is one of the few jets I have "flown" in a real live pro simulator a bit ). I take my FS2004 sim flying procedure very seriously, so I strive to do everything by the book,.... So anyway I am on final approach, and the cockpit audible starts calling off the altitude starting at 500ft. This suprised me but it was way cool to the whole emersion in your environment that the sim provides. It was a wonderful help because then all I had to do is concentrate on the VSI and airspeed and line up. I just now found a PDF file on the thing and will read up on it.

Again my question for the pro would be; How extensive are the voice audibles in todays modern commercial jet? I always knew there were warning voice audibles like "sink rate" etc etc. I was just suprised to find a nice helpful voice giving me useful information.

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It just so happens we fly commercial type jets here at FedEx and although I'm not a real pilot and only have about 600 or so hours in Boeing and Airbus type sims, I may be able to shed some light on your inquiry.

I can't comment on the planes of other airlines but our jets have a system called the "Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System", aka EGPWS, or as we call it, "Ejipwiz". On a stabilized approach like you're talkin' about, if the descent rate is within tolerance the EGPWS will start AGL callouts starting at 1000' AGL and again at 500', 100', 50', 40', 30', 20', and 10' AGL. This is part of the planes catagory approach rating (CAT 2, 3, or 3B). For example on a CAT 3B approach (practically zero-zero), the PIC needs to know AGL levels in order to decide on a go-around if the approach mins aren't met by such-n-such an MSL or AGL altitude.

If the sink rate is detected to be excessive, the EGPWS will generate a "SINK RATE, SINK RATE" or if the flaps aren't in config you'll get a "DON'T SINK, DON'T SINK" if flap mins are detected. It'll also say "TERRAIN, TERRAIN" if it thinks you might be in a potential CFIT situation, "OBSTACLE, OBSTACLE" if it detects something like a radio transmitter tower in the flight path, or in the worst case, give a repeated "WHOOP WHOOP" tone accompanied by a very insistant "PULL UP!" if an immimnent ground clobber is detected. All of these call-outs are of sufficent volume to be captured on the Cockpit Voice Recorder if an "incident" occurs that the NTSB deems needing investigation.

And although we "sim pros" will admit to a man our disdain for the PC-based sims, secretly we're really impressed by the realism of some of the higher-end ones like MS FlightSim and others.....but lets keep that on the Q-T, 'kay? Wink

Hey thanks!

Yeah I don't want to go super crazy on the sim thing. I just want to have fun. All the real pilot stuff like feeding the mission into the jets computer and checking it, and the thousand other things commercial pilots have to be current on just to sit in the cockpit has its limits. Twisted Evil

It is interesting though for sure. Makes you appreciate all the BS they go through. ( " That $##@** approach controler just made me go around. Why is it my fault he is an idiot? And look at all the gas that will be wasted on this go around!" Twisted Evil

)

Actually...flight planning a FedEx Airbus A300 isn't really that much more difficult than programming a route in the Viper. A few extra waypoints and fixes maybe and the programming syntax is a bit different but the logic is basically the same. And the thing flies the route automatically for about 98% of the flight. I'll agree with ya that systems knowledge for heavies (especially the automated models like the MD-11 or the soon-to-come A380) is a big issue, probably more so than airmanship, although that's obviously important too. But because most of our pilot base and new hires are either ex-military tanker/transport guys or coming from other carriers (and hence already know how to fly), the prioritization habits are well ingrained, so they pick it up quick. And the fact that we fly boxes and not people means they don't have to rehearse that funny PA announcer voice you hear on commercials! Wink

Forum: Off-topic

Commercial Aviation