Connected Flight Deck Flows

Aerosoft Airbus

A318/A319/A320/A321

CONNECTED FLIGHT DECK FLOWS

Vol

09-01-06 Page 2

08 April 2015

Welcome to your Multi Crew introduction course!

At the beginning let us discuss some of the details of multi crew operations you may not be used to from

your previous operation in single pilot cockpits. Even if you already have previous experience in a multi crew

cockpit you should read this section to get comfortable with the way the Airbus should be operated to

ensure you and your crew member will fly it safely!

First of all you will notice the most obvious: There is someone else sitting next to you, including all the

advantages, but also all the weaknesses of humans. This is especially true concerning we are untrained

simmers, who, unlike professional pilots, do not have a type rating.

As you might already know from your previous flight experience there are a few golden rules of operating

an Airbus, which are especially important when flying it with two crew members.

You can find those in a very nice document by Airbus and the FAA here:

http://lessonslearned.faa.gov/IndianAir605/AirbusSafetyLib_-FLT_OPS-SOP-SEQ03%20-

%20Ops%20Golden%20Rules.pdf

Take your time to read and fully understand them. Always be aware of the Golden Rules when flying the

Airbus!

Now let's continue with some specific aspects of operating with another crew member. You may have flown,

or when no second pilot is available will still fly, with addons providing a simulation of a first officer. It will

not take long for you to notice that these are, as long as they understand your commands, more or less

“perfect” in doing their flows, etc.

This is not the case any longer!

Flying with a real person means he is going to make mistakes, not doing what you want him to do and

misunderstanding each other. This is normal and we have to deal with it. Over the last decades procedures

have been developed to counteract the human factors while flying. They can't prevent all kind of mistakes,

but they will help managing them!

Crew Resource Management (CRM)

What I'm outlining here is basically just a very small part of what real pilots learn in a CRM course. The real

course lasts several days and includes in depth discussions of how to react in certain situations, etc.

Some people tend to put a CRM course on par with an actor training.

We're just doing a brief summary on this here, however once you have read and understood it, it will greatly

enhance your experience flying the Airbus in a multi crew environment.

All of the following sort of belongs to CRM, but for a better readability I'll split it in several parts combined

with the most important information you need to fly the Airbus with a real person as your captain or first

officer: