The incident created a furore, even though A-I dismissed it as a radio communication failure.
Captain Rajiv Kothiyal, vice-president (flight operations) of Deccan Airlines, explains to DNA what goes on inside the cockpit, from take-off to touchdown in the wake of two Air-India pilots dozing off in the cockpit of flight IC-612 on Wednesday. The incident created a furore, even though A-I dismissed it as a radio communication failure.
A pilot’s activities are well programmed right from take-off, cruising to finally landing.
Taking off is largely a manual procedure, with the captain calculating aircraft speed depending on the length of the runway.
Longer the runway, the aeroplane has more time to roll at a lower speed. Before take-off he has to align the aircraft along the central line of the runway and should begin rolling the plane at high speed (150 milehour). The instant the co-pilot shouts out ‘rotate’ he has to take-off, that is, leave the runway. The whole process takes 30 seconds.
The captain then sets an auto-pilot at a height of say 1,000 feet. The altitude, height, twists and turns of a route are calculated and pre-fed in a computer. However, the auto-pilot only helps maintain the accurate height, pre-set for instance at 34,000 feet. The Global Positioning System (GPS) helps smooth and accurate navigation of the aircraft. It helps maintain the decided route.
However, the pilot has to manually control the flight in case of weather turbulence or a change in his route. For instance, to avoid a huge cloud he will have to turn the knob to 280 degrees and can again return to auto-pilot mode.
Only after settling on height and speed, the physical signs (seat belt sign) are switched off so that passengers can move around or be served. But the pilots have to establish contact with the air traffic controlling officers (ATC) at points. The time gap between two points is usually 15 minutes—when the pilot relaxes since it is difficult to sit near the monitor for two hours. But the pilot has to look out for weather change, fuel consumption, monitor instruments, and report to the ATC.
However, the pilot can shoot beyond the destination if he does not manually change the altitude and speed of the aircraft during descent, even if the distance is fed into the auto-pilot system. You will continue to fly towards Karachi on the Bangalore-Mumbai route if you do not monitor the cruising of the flight.
Landing too, is 95% manual. Auto-landing comes into play only in foggy weather. The descent begins from different height for various airports. It could be 3,000 feet depending on the obstacles surrounding the airfield. Once the runway is visible, at usually 1.5 miles away and a height of 200 feet, a briefing is done on how to land and the taxi-way to the parking bay communicated by the ATC officer. The auto-pilot knob is then switched off and the pilot lands the plane on the runway and glides towards the bay.
(As told to Bhargavi Kerur)
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