Flight Control Laws Flashcards
What do protections do?
-Allows the computers to intervene, override, or limit control input
-Protections cannot be modified or overridden
What are stabilities?
Sort of like protections but exist when degraded conditions exist
-Allows the computers to intervene override or limit control input in a lesser form.
-Cannot be modified or overridden
What are the major flight control laws?
Normal law—>alternate law—>direct law.
When do the active flight control laws change to a lesser law?
In the event of multiple system failures
What is the highest and most capable level of flight control laws?
Normal law
When is normal law in effect?
When all or nearly all aircraft systems are operational. A single failure of a system does not affect normal law. A dual failure in certain specific systems is required to cause the change to a lesser flight control law.
When does direct law normally become active?
When the landing gear is lowered while operating in alternate law.
What is available in the event that you experience a loss of all flight control computers, or a total electrical failure?
Mechanical backup. This is only provided to help control the aircraft until a higher law can be maintained.
What controls are part of the mechanical backup?
Pitch trim wheels, rudder pedals, and engine thrust.
What’s abnormal attitude law?
Provides sufficient control to recover from an unusual attitude should the normal pitch or bank angle limits be exceeded by an outside force such as wake turbulence.
When is automatic pitch trim available?
In normal law and the bank angle is 33º or less.
When do you need to make pitch trim adjustments when the aircraft is operating normally?
Never. As long as the aircraft is operating normally it trims itself to maintain the attitude requested by the side stick.
What is load factor demand?
When making pitch adjustments in normal law, your side stick movement corresponds to a request for increased or decreased load factor, not directly an increase or decrease in pitch.
What is load factor protection?
When the aircraft prevents you from over stressing the airframes acceleration limits. This means when you suddenly add full aft stick you’ll get the maximum positive load factor of 2.5g’s.
What is VLS?
Lowest safe speed
What’s the max rate of roll in normal law?
15º per second
In normal law, at bank angles of ________ or less, the aircraft will automatically maintain that bank angle even when sidestick pressure is released
33º
In normal law, at bank angles of ________ or less, the aircraft will automatically introduce the required amount of elevator to maintain level flight. Beyond ________ , you must manually apply the required back pressure on the yoke to maintain level flight.
33º
Do you need to apply rudder for turn coordination in normal law?
No. It’s automatic.
What’s Normal Law Ground Mode?
When on the ground, movement of the side-stick allows full movement of the control to check their functionality prior to flight. It also allows you to more easily rotate the aircraft on takeoff. To make sure that takeoff pitch trim doesn’t change on automatically, it’s inhibited on the ground.
In normal law when does flare mode activate?
50’ for A320, 100’ for A321.
