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Last update: 2020/12/07 10:49
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Printed on 2020/12/07 15:07
maintains the altitude.
A similar thing happens during the descent. If you have DES or OP DES engaged the auto thrust will
retard the thrust to idle (THR IDLE) and the autopilot pitches down to keep the airspeed target. So
again the autopilot is controlling the speed and the auto-thrust is just keeping a fixed thrust value, in
this case idle. Once the aircraft has descended to the target altitude the auto-thrust controls the
speed again and the autopilot switches to altitude hold.
Note - This works pretty well if you have the autopilot and auto-thrust engaged. If you control either
of them manually you have to be careful because you as a pilot then need to make sure that the
airspeed is kept within limits. Imaging the engines going to full throttle but you don't pull up to keep
the airspeed. Or the engines go to idle and stay there but you don't pitch the nose down. This can get
out of hand quickly. This is why most airlines require the pilots to either use both: AP and A/THR or
neither. Or at least make sure that for landing the auto-thrust is indeed controlling speed and no
longer keeping idle thrust.
Managed/Selected Modes
Generally speaking, if a knob is pushed in the control is handed over to the automation in the
managed mode. The field becomes dashed and a dot appears next to it (triple dash and a dot). Then
the autopilot will use the flight plan as a reference.
If a knob is pulled out we gain manual control and can change the target values ourselves in the
selected mode. If we pull the speed knob for example the speed window opens with the current
airspeed and we can then turn the knob to change the selected speed.
Speed-Knob
Push the speed knob to use the route speed as computed by the flight management computers. The
speed will automatically change throughout the flight and the autopilot will fly the aircraft
accordingly. When there is no flight plan it won't do anything (unless you're already on approach).
Pull the speed knob to set the autopilot target airspeed manually. Turn the knob to change the
selected speed.
Depending on the vertical mode the autopilot is either pitching the airplane up or down to keep the
target speed or it is using the auto thrust to keep the speed.