What do these Airbus A380 terms mean?

[MitchT]

Just curious... What do the following terms mean that appear in this video?

http://youtu.be/X-xGZhoaKv4

"Hundred Above"
"Minimum"
"Retard"

Also, why, specifically, "320"?

[Eric Mc]

100 above - 100 feet above the glideslope?

Is "retard" to do with setting the throtles for reverse thrust?

[Chuck328]

On an instrument guided approach, say ILS (Instrument Landing System) there will be a Minimum height at which you have to have the required visual elements to land. There a few categories of ILS depending on the airports kit. Most major airports have the kit to do a full autoland, some do not. Aberdeen would be an example, the minimum there is two hundred feet. You program the aircraft with the minimums, one hundred above is an advisory that you are approaching minimums, at minimum, no visual reference = Go Around.

Retard = A reminder to retard the thrust levers to Idle.

HTH

Edit: The three twenty is an odd one, I'm guessing that's company specific. The company can program (or is it the manufacturer - not sure) what auto call outs they want. I don't think we can get rid of being called a 'retard' though

Edited by Chuck328 on Friday 30th December 13:17

[Sifly]

Chuck328 said:

Retard = A reminder to retard the thrust levers to Idle.

I've been flying Boeings for years, and have never forgotten to bring the thrust levers back to idle when landing as yet!! Must be a 'bus' thingy?!!

[simonej]

If it's anything like ours then the '400' and '320' etc... could be the rad alt calling out height above the ground below - though ours only shouts 'twenty five hundred' and from then on is displayed visually.

And then as Chuck says, the '100 above' is 100 feet above decision altitude to alert you that you're approaching 'minimums'.

'Minimum(s)' is the DA (Decision Altitude) at which point you continue to land if visual or execute a missed approach if you're not.

[Chuck328]

Sifly said:

I've been flying Boeings for years, and have never forgotten to bring the thrust levers back to idle when landing as yet!! Must be a 'bus' thingy?!!

Yes yes yes, I know....

I imagine most (like me) just ignore the bugger. I'll chop the thrust when I'm ready, not when you (a computer) tells me. Oddly enough , regardless of what I've flown, I've never had a problem forgetting about the thrust either.

I did hear though, that the crash in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I think? The one that went off the runway and exploded a few years ago was partly caused by forgetting to do just that!!!!

[ADM777]

Chuck328 said:

I imagine most (like me) just ignore the bugger. I'll chop the thrust when I'm ready, not when you (a computer) tells me. Oddly enough , regardless of what I've flown, I've never had a problem forgetting about the thrust either.

It's been a few years since I flew an Airbus, but hasn't it already chopped the thrust when it calls retard, and you're just matching the lever position?

As I say, could have remembered it completely wrong...

[aceparts]

Sifly said:

I've been flying Boeings for years, and have never forgotten to bring the thrust levers back to idle when landing as yet!! Must be a 'bus' thingy?!!

It's incase the hostess is flying.

[Chuck328]

ADM777 said:

It's been a few years since I flew an Airbus, but hasn't it already chopped the thrust when it calls retard, and you're just matching the lever position?

As I say, could have remembered it completely wrong...

Only during autoland.

Fail to pull the levers back during manual land and the auto thrust will command spool up to maintain the speed.

How long since you flew the bus?

[ADM777]

Chuck328 said:

ADM777 said:

It's been a few years since I flew an Airbus, but hasn't it already chopped the thrust when it calls retard, and you're just matching the lever position?

As I say, could have remembered it completely wrong...

Only during autoland.

Fail to pull the levers back during manual land and the auto thrust will command spool up to maintain the speed.

How long since you flew the bus?

Thanks for putting me right. It's been 7 years or so (319/320/321)

Amazing how quickly you forget things. Any future conversion course back might not be as straightforward as I thought..!