UNCOMMANDED ROLL WHILE ON AUTOPLT.

1995-08 · NASA ASRS report 314148

Date: 1995-08 · Aircraft: B747-C/F

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-less-severe|deviation-track-heading-all-types|other-unspecified

Synopsis

UNCOMMANDED ROLL WHILE ON AUTOPLT.

Narrative

BOEING 747-2 FREIGHTER ORD-ANC OPERATING ON 'A' AUTOPLT WITH PERFORMANCE MGMNT SYS ENGAGED. AUTOPLT TWICE DISCONNECTED WITH NO PERFORMANCE MGMNT SYS FAULTS NOTED. OPERATING ON 'A' AUTOPLT AND PERFORMANCE MGMNT SYS AND AUTOTHROTTLES ENGAGED; WITH INS SELECTED. OPERATING MIDWAY BTWN 2 CORRECT WAYPOINTS (5-6); ACFT STARTED AN UNCOMMANDED L ROLL. ROLL WAS SMOOTH AND FAIRLY RAPID. PASSING 15 DEGS L BANK; ROLL WAS NOTED AND AUTOPLT DISCONNECTED AND ROLL STOPPED. 'B' AUTOPLT USED REMAINDER OF TRIP WITH NO FURTHER PROB. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: THE RPTR IS A CHK AIRMAN ON THE B-747. HE IS A CRUSADER TO KEEP THE COCKPIT WHITE LIGHTING 'OFF' WHILE FLYING AT NIGHT. HE BELIEVES THAT HE AND HIS CREW WERE ABLE TO FIND THIS BANK ANGLE CHANGE VERY QUICKLY BECAUSE THEY HAD AN OUTSIDE HORIZON AND WERE NOT DISTRACTED BY WHITE LIGHTS. HE ADMITS THAT HE IS FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE OVER THE LIGHT ISSUE. HE THINKS THAT HIS INCIDENT WAS VERY MINOR BUT COULD HAVE BECOME DISASTROUS HAD THE TURN CONTINUED OR THE BANK ANGLE INCREASED. HIS ACR FOUND THAT THEE WAS A PROB WITH AN AUTOPLT SERVO THAT HAS SINCE BEEN CHANGED. HIS ACR PUBLISHED A BULLETIN TO ALL B-747 PLTS IN HIS COMPANY REGARDING THIS INCIDENT.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.