AN A320 PIC ALLOWS THE FLT TO GET LOW ON APCH SPD AND THEN FORGETS TO LOWER FLAPS TO FULL POS UNTIL 400 FT AGL LNDG AT PIT; PA.
Synopsis
AN A320 PIC ALLOWS THE FLT TO GET LOW ON APCH SPD AND THEN FORGETS TO LOWER FLAPS TO FULL POS UNTIL 400 FT AGL LNDG AT PIT; PA.
Narrative
PIT TWR ASKED PREVIOUS ACFT FOR THE WINDS ON SHORT FINAL SINCE WINDS ON THE GND WERE CALM; YET ACFT ON APCH WERE RPTING A ROUGH RIDE AND PLUS/MINUS AIRSPD VARIATIONS. FO AND I BOTH SEEMED TO FIXATE ON WATCHING THE WIND VECTOR ON OUR EFIS AND AT 500 FT AGL; NOTICED THAT ACFT WAS FLYING AT VLS (MINIMUM SELECTABLE AIRSPD) +1 KT; WHICH IS INCORRECT. WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT VLS PLUS AT LEAST 5 KTS AND PROBABLY MORE WITH THE VARIABLE WINDS. I TOLD THE FO TO QUICKLY GET INTO THE FMS AND CHANGE OUR APCH TARGET SPD TO A HIGHER NUMBER SINCE ACFT OBVIOUSLY WEIGHED MORE THAN WHAT HAD BEEN PROGRAMMED AT BEGINNING OF FLT. AS FO BEGAN TO DO THIS; FLT WARNING COMPUTER ANNOUNCED 'TOO LOW-FLAPS.' I REALIZED THAT I HAD NOT CALLED FOR FINAL FLAP SETTING WHILE BEING DISTR WITH THE ACFT WT AND WIND CONCERNS. I SELECTED FLAPS FULL AT 400 FT AGL AND LANDED NORMALLY; BUT WAS IN VIOLATION OF OUR FLT OPS MANUAL WHICH REQUIRES FINAL FLAP SETTING TO BE SET AT 1000 FT AGL. EVEN THOUGH WE HAD BRIEFED USING FLAPS FULL FOR LNDG; THE ACFT CAN BE LANDED AT FLAPS 3 DEGS (POS OF FLAPS WHEN FLT WARNING COMPUTER WARNED US) AND IN FACT IS THE PREFERRED FLAP SETTING WHEN WINDSHEAR IS PRESENT (IT WASN'T).
More incidents for this aircraft family →
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.