FCU - Flight Control Unit
Selection and Management
On this FCU, the speed, heading and altitude buttons can be pushed or pulled. To push a button, press the left mouse button. To pull, use the right mouse button.
When you push one of these buttons, you use the SELECTED mode of the FCU. This is the "standard" mode, where the autopilot will follow the instruction entered as a value displayed on the FCU panel.
When you pull a button, you use the MANAGED mode. It means the FMGC will automatically take control of the autopilot to provide it the right value of speed, heading or alititude in order to follow the flight plan programmed in the FMGC. When a speed, heading or altitude is managed, no value is displayed on the FCU panel, "----" appears instead.
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As you can see on this example, the speed and altitude are managed, the pilot does not have to think about the right value of speed and altitude, the FMGC handles it. Heading is selected with a value of 76°, which means the aircraft will follow this heading. |
FCU features
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Autopilot Activation
The autopilot is engaged pressing the AP1 button. It
can not be engaged when the aircraft is on the ground. |
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Speed and Auto-Throttle Speed and Mach mode are armed using the same button. To choose between
Speed (in knots) and Mach, press the Speed Selector
button. |
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Heading / Course mode Heading and Nav (or Course) modes are designed to be set and
activated using the same button. To choose between heading and course
setting, press the Heading/Course selector. |
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Wing Leveler Pressing the LVL button will keep your wings leveled. |
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Altitude mode This mode is activated with the ALT mode button. The interesting
feature here is that you can select your target altitude by increasing or
decreasing the altitude by increments of 100 or 1000 feet. This is very
useful when you want to select your cruise altitude (33000 feet for
example), because it is much faster with 1000 feet increments. |
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Vertical Speed When ALT mode is engaged, you can select your vertical speed (in feet per minute). You can also press this button to level off at the current altitude. |
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LOC and APPR modes LOC mode activation will make the aircraft follow the actual localizer. APPR mode will do the same, and will also manage the altitude to follow the glideslope. This is very useful for automatic landings. |
Autoland
The autopilot pilot is now equiped with an automatic landing capability. The
autoland is automatically engaged when the aircraft is below the
decision height (displayed on the Flight Mode ANunciator of the PFD).
In order to make it work, te following conditions
must be fulfilled:
If one of this condition becomes false, the autoland is aborted.
If all
these conditions remain true during the final aprroach, you will hear a beep and
an AUTOLAND message appears on the E/WD. At this time, you can let the iarcraft land by its
own... When the aircraft will be close to the ground, the throttle will be set
to IDLE. As soon as the aircraft touches the ground, the spoilers will be
deployed if they were armed (recommended), and reverse thrust will be engaged
and brake power will be applied until the aircraft decelerates to 60 knots. Then
thrust will come back to IDLE, and auto-brake will keep braking until the
aircraft comes to a complete stop. At this time, all autopilots and
auto-throttle will be disarmed, and the control of the aircraft comes back to
the pilot.
If the AUTOLAND is engaged and you wish to abort it, you can easily abort it by switching AP1 or AP2 OFF or by disarming auto-throttle. As soon as AUTOLAND is aborted, it will not be available again until the aircraft has landed.
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