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Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

flightradar24.com

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Re: Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

#11

Post by rbanffy »

laverya wrote: post #8
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I wonder if there isn't an easy way to automate the parabolic flight - the autopilot should be clever enough to do it by itself without needing human intervention.

The real question is "does it cost more to certify the autopilot to do this than it does to pay for an extra two pilots", and with my understanding of aerospace costs that answer would be "very, very much yes".

> "does it cost more to certify the autopilot to do this than it does to pay for an extra two pilots"

I bet it does. Parabolic flights aren't really a huge market.

Re: Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

#15

Post by lm28469 »

mromanuk wrote: post #3
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I wonder if there isn't an easy way to automate the parabolic flight - the autopilot should be clever enough to do it by itself without needing human intervention.

It baffles me that they need five pilots to accomplish this.

Yeah let's put Musk's autopilot in it and lose 20 people every few years when the plane get scared by the shadow of a cloud. That'll save money

Re: Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

#16

Post by wil421 »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #13

There's some scary videos from the cockpit in an A300 and (I think an) A310 doing parabolas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty5B-7CinB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-pMLZP6HL8

Wow that last one was pretty crazy to see. I guess they had some camera rig that would keep the camera level with the horizon.

Re: Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

#17

Post by londons_explore »

laverya wrote: post #8
rbanffy wrote: post #2

I wonder if there isn't an easy way to automate the parabolic flight - the autopilot should be clever enough to do it by itself without needing human intervention.

The real question is "does it cost more to certify the autopilot to do this than it does to pay for an extra two pilots", and with my understanding of aerospace costs that answer would be "very, very much yes".

I could imagine the autopilot could do a much better job.

In the ideal 'zero-g' flight, you can release a ball at the start, and it should stay stationary (relative to the cabin) for the whole flight.

That means the plane body must be to within a few inches of the exact perfect location in the sky 30 seconds later.

I haven't flown planes, but I imagine that making sure they follow precisely a path with an accuracy of an inch in all three dimensions while travelling at 600 mph is no easy feat. But an autopilot with a fast control loop might be able to do it.

Re: Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

#18

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

6stringmerc wrote: post #9
rbanffy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine it's for an abundance of caution, as they are flying these planes way outside what their normal operations manual recommends. I assume a 320 NEO or a 737 MAX would slap the hand of the pilot if they attempted to go for a +50 degree climb and scream expletives in the voice alert system.

Okay you just gave me a mental image of an Airbus autopilot system so angry at you it starts swearing in French. Totally agree with safety and ‘normal use case this is not’ situation.

Defaulting back to it's `native` language (of the programmers). That would be hilarious and should be on the next AirPlane spoof.

Mel Brooks, where are you!

Re: Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

#19

Post by bombcar »

nvusuvu wrote: post #6
mromanuk wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It baffles me that they need five pilots to accomplish this.

FTA "To fly a parabola takes 3 pilots working in concert. Two pilots sit in front of the control columns and a third sits in the center jump seat to manage the engines. When flying a parabola, one pilot is responsible for the pitch of the aircraft and the other for the roll. The pilot responsible for the roll of the aircraft actually has a modified control column in order to put as little pressure on the yoke as poss…

Yeah doing a parabola is relatively easy. Doing a nearly perfect one to maximize weightlessness without overstressing something is harder, so having one pilot for each aspect makes sense.

Another for radio and another for “general everything watching; the captain” makes sense.

Re: Weightless: Parabolic flight on an A310

#20

Post by scrumper »

wil421 wrote: post #16
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #13

There's some scary videos from the cockpit in an A300 and (I think an) A310 doing parabolas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty5B-7CinB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-pMLZP6HL8

Wow that last one was pretty crazy to see. I guess they had some camera rig that would keep the camera level with the horizon.

Amazing video.

I’d guess not mechanical? Look at the dashboard top, lower left over the first minute or so: There’s a screw head that keeps popping in and out of existence which suggests some kind of heavy software correction to me.

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