Approach stability...

[ESzczesniak 25]

I'm curious what other people's perceptions about the approach control on manuals. I've only had the Airbus X up for a couple flights and she handles fairly well on departure. I just can't tame it on approach. I've tried flying both a manual approach from before the LOC intercept and letting the autopilot fly the LOC and G/S intercept before taking over.

The problem I'm having is that the elevator controls, particularly up elevator, is laggy and over sensitive. If I am falling below G/S, I correct with just a slight bit of up elevator and go from a descent rate of about 7-800 fpm to 5-600 fpm immediately and looks good. But the elevator response just keeps ballooning over the next 1-2 seconds and even with fill down pressure on my stick (ok, yoke) the descent rate comes up to about 0 fpm. This makes tracking the G/S very difficult, something that I am actually pretty good at on most other aircraft being able to hold the G/S until about 50' AGL. I find a similar response with down elevator, but not as dramatic.

I'm wondering if this is a result of my poor understanding of the FBW syste, as I'm a Boeing guy normally. I have been trying to trim the aircraft on approach like I would any other aircraft while flying manually. Perhaps I'm messing up the FBW system? I always have concerns over correct speed/weight but have been using the speeds from the CDU and flying around 120-130 kts.

I'm curious what people's experience has been flying this aircraft on approach and if it's any different than my experience.

[reallinepilot 4]

I fly the A319 and A320 for a well know US carrier.

There is a slight pitch down at around 40 feet AGL or so to cue the flare in manual flight. The Airbus sucks to fly by hand period. Example, you want to make a very slight bank to correct for turbulence etc...the plane will "think" you want to to do a full turn and will typically overbank. I came from the 737-300/500 and it was a dream to hand fly compared to the bus. Sounds to me like they got the flight logic right with the exception of the elevator. With an approach speed N1 setting of about 55-60%, the plane should be easy to trim up for a standard glide-slope.

Regards.

[alehead 126]

Thanks for the info, the pitch down in flare mode ( for wont of a the correct terminology, sorry, haven't got an FCOM to hand) begins at too great an altitude in the AirbusX. It starts at 100RA and is really aggressive. It is making manual landings really hard to do, with an overly aggressive pitch up input required to keep the Bus from slamming the ground at -500fpm or worse...

Not having any control of the rudder until 100RA makes the minor adjustments to LOC track, particularly in crosswinds, really difficult, too.

Andrew