Activation of APPR MODE

[BlueHazard 1]

Hey there

I would like the approach checklist and procedures only to by activated by the activation of the approach mode in the MCDU because of the scenario that recently happened to me:

I was flying the XORK2B STAR at LGAV (Athens). Since the waypoint was pretty far off to the other direction, I wanted to keep flying at 250 kts and then activate approach mode to reduce my speed but the approach checklist was already finished and the captain let the co-pilot set the flaps to 2 which of course resulted in an overspeed. If the co-pilot wouldn't extend flaps before approach mode is active these incidents could be avoided.

Regards

[Passpilotion 19]

+1 to this.

Approach procedure in MCDU activates automatically often too early. Flaps go down, speed goes down, while you still have 15 minutes of flying!

Copilot should be turned off at approach. No other way to fly it properly.

[Hanse 216]

Hi,

we really looked into this matter and therefore it took us some time to answer. Also the guy who programmed the MCDU currently was not available.

According to the AIRBUS documentation there are two ways to activate the approach mode = automatic or manually. If the activation has not been done manually, the MCDU automatically activates the APPR MODE at the Decelaration Point.This is AIRBUS standard philosophy and therefore we do not want to change it. Sorry but you users wanted a plane very near to reality.......

Hanse

[BlueHazard 1]

I was not talking about the activation of the aircrafts approach mode. I meant that the flaps are not being extended by the co-pilot until the approach mode is activated either by the user or automatically as it makes no sense that the flaps are extended while being in the descend phase I think.

Edit: Actually the upcoming change with the checklist being interrupted until landing memo becomes active should do what I wanted.