Operations Golden Rules

Approach-and-Landing Briefing Note

1.3 - Operations Golden Rules

Introduction

Golden Rules have always guided human activities.

In early aviation days, the Golden Rules defined the basic principles of airmanship.

With the development of technology in modern aircraft and with research on man-machine-interface and crew-coordination, Golden Rules have been broadened to encompass the principles of interaction with automation and crew resources management (CRM).

The operations Golden Rules defined by Airbus Industrie assist trainees in maintaining their basic airmanship even as they progress to integrated and automated aircraft models.

These rules apply with little modification to all Airbus models. Although developed for trainees, the Golden Rules are equally useful for experienced line pilots.

Golden Rules address aspects that are considered frequent causal factors in approach and landing accidents:

. Inadequate situational / positional awareness;

. Incorrect interaction with automation;

. Overreliance on automation; and,

. Ineffective crew cross-check and mutual backup.

Statistical Data

Table 1. Most Frequent Causal Factorsin Approach-and-Landing Accidents

General Golden Rules

The following eight Golden Rules are applicable in normal conditions and, more importantly, in any unanticipated or abnormal / emergency condition.

Automated aircraft can be flown like any other aircraft.

To promote this rule, each trainee should be given the opportunity to fly the aircraft just using the stick, rudder and throttles. The use of flight director (FD), autopilot (AP), autothrottle/autothrust (A/THR) and flight management system (FMS) should be introduced progressively, as defined by the applicable training syllabus.

Practice of hand flying will illustrate that the pilot flying (PF) always retains the authority and capability to adopt:

. A more direct level of automation; or revert to,

. Hand flying, directly controlling the aircraft trajectory and energy.

Fly, Navigate, Communicate and Manage – in that order

Task sharing should be adapted to the prevailing situation (i.e., task sharing for hand flying or with AP engaged, task sharing for normal operation or

for abnormal / emergency conditions, as defined in FCOM) and tasks should be accomplished in accordance with the following priorities:

  . Fly :

PF must concentrate on flying the aircraft (i.e., by controlling and/or monitoring the pitch attitude, bank angle, airspeed, thrust, sideslip, heading, ...) to capture and maintain the desired targets, vertical flight path and lateral flight path. PNF must backup the PF by monitoring flight parameters and by calling any excessive deviation.

  . Navigate :

Select the desired modes for vertical navigation and lateral navigation (i.e., selected modes or FMS-managed navigation), being aware of surrounding terrain and minimum safe altitude. This rule can be summarized by the following three “ know where …” situational-awareness items:

.Know where you are;

.Know where you should be; and,

.Know where the terrain and obstacles are.

  . Communicate :

Effective crew communication involves communications between flight crewmembers and communications between flight crew and cabin crew. In an abnormal or emergency condition, after a stable flight path has been regained and the abnormal or emergency condition has been identified, the PF should inform the ATC of the prevailing condition and of his/her intentions.

To attract the controller’s attention, use the following standard phraseology, as applicable:

.Pan Pan – Pan Pan – Pan Pan; or

.Mayday – Mayday – Mayday.

  . Manage :

Managing the continuation of the flight is the next priority, this includes:

    . Managing aircraft systems (e.g., fuel management, ETOPS management, etc); and,

    . Performing applicable emergency and/or abnormal procedure(s).

The design of glass-cockpit aircraft fully supports the above four-step strategy, as summarized in Table 1.

Table 1

Glass-cockpit Design Supports Golden Rules

Practice task sharing and back-up each other

Task sharing, effective cross-check and backup should be practiced in all phases of ground and flight operation, in normal operation or in abnormal / emergency conditions.

Emergency, abnormal and normal procedures (i.e., normal checklists) should be performed as directed by ECAM and/or QRH, e.g. : . In case of an emergency condition:

.Emergency procedure;

.Normal checklist ( as applicable ); and,

.Abnormal procedure(s).

. In case of an abnormal condition:

.Abnormal procedure down to STATUS;

.Normal checklist ( as applicable ); and,

.Resuming abnormal procedure.

These actions should be accomplished in accordance with the published task sharing, crew coordination principles and phraseology. Critical or irreversible actions, such as selecting an engine fuel lever / master switch or a fuel isolation valve to OFF, should be accomplished by the PNF but require prior confirmation by the PF (i.e., confirmation loop).

Know your FMA guidance at all times

The FCU and FMS CDU and keyboard are the prime interfaces for the crew to communicate with aircraft systems (i.e., to arm modes or engage

modes and to set targets). The PFD (particularly the FMA and target symbols on speed scale and altitude scale) and ND are the prime interfaces for the aircraft to communicate with the crew, to confirm that the aircraft systems have correctly accepted the flight crew’s mode selections and target entries. Any action on FCU or on FMS keyboard and line-select keys should be confirmed by cross-checking the corresponding annunciation or data on PFD and/or ND.

At all times, the PF and PNF should be aware of:

. Modes armed or engaged;

. Guidance targets set; and,

. Mode transitions or reversions.

Cross check the accuracy of the FMS with raw data

When within navaids coverage area, FMS navigation accuracy should be cross-checked against navaids raw-data (unless aircraft is GPS-equipped and GPS PRIMARY is available).

FMS navigation accuracy can be checked by:

. Entering a tuned VOR-DME in the bearing/distance ( BRG / DIST TO ) field of the appropriate FMS page;

. Checking the difference between FMS DIS TO and DME distance against the criteria applicable for the flight phase (as defined in SOPs).

If the required FMS navigation accuracy criteria are not achieved, revert from NAV mode to selected heading mode with reference to navaids raw-data.

Select PF ND to ARC or ROSE mode. If no map shift is observed, PNF may keep ND in MAP mode, with display of speed constraints and/or altitude constraints, for enhanced horizontal and vertical situational awareness.

One head up at all times

Significant changes to the FMS flight plan should be performed by PNF and cross-checked by PF, after transfer of controls, in order to maintain one head up at all times for supervising the progress of the flight and aircraft systems.

When things don’t go as expected, Take Over

If the aircraft does not follow the desired vertical flight path / lateral flight path or the selected targets, and time does not permit analyzing and solving the observed behavior, revert without delay from:

. FMS guidance to selected guidance; or from,

. Selected guidance to hand flying.

Use the correct level of automation for the task

On highly automated and integrated aircraft, several levels of automation are available to perform a given task:

. FMS modes and guidance; or,

. Selected modes and guidance.

The correct level of automation depends on:

. The task to be performed:

  .short-term (tactical) task; or,

  .long-term (strategic) task;

. The flight phase:

   .enroute;

   .terminal area; or,

   .approach; and,

   . The time available:

   .normal selection or entry; or,

   .last-minute change.

The correct level of automation often is the one the pilot feels the most comfortable with, depending on his/her knowledge and experience of the aircraft and systems.

Reversion to hand-flying and manual thrust-control may be the correct level of automation, for the prevailing conditions.

The GOLDEN RULES Card

The GOLDEN RULES Card has been developed to promote and disseminate the operations Golden Rules   The card is provided to all trainees attending a flight-crew-training course at an Airbus Training Center (i.e., in Toulouse, Miami and Beijing).