Airbus A380 Cockpit Pictures

Let us bask for a moment in the majesty of the Airbus A380 cockpit, full as it is of flush flat panels, knobs, and various things to keep the pilots distracted so the autopilot can do its job.

AVING got a chance to tour one of Korean Air's new A380 and has several pictures.

Korean Air to unveil the inside of Airbus A380 - Detailed Image [AVING.net via Red Ferret]

[#1 posted by Anonymous , September 11, 2007 5:34 AM]

That's actually true Joel. I once flew JFK to LHR in a 747 cockpit and from two minutes after take off to around 1 hour pre landing, autopilot was on. These guys just read the paper and answered air traffic every so often. Cushy job or what...? :-)

[#2 posted by Anonymous , September 11, 2007 6:53 PM]

Well, Mate, I have to say that Its not half a cushy as you think. You Need skill, Masses of knowledge, and a calm head in a crisis. The pilots don't do as much flying as the word "Pilot" implies, but that's the reason we call them the Captain and First officer.

Just like on a navy ship, He's the Captain, and he's in command of our vessel and us.

Just for an example - If I have to Restrain a Disorderly or violent Passenger - Yes, I can actually do that, and I have done it on multiple occasions before - We need permission from the captain. In fact, If we want to use more than just our flexi-cuffs(Ie, Handcuffs) We have to go up to the cockpit, get permission from the captain, and then retrieve the handcuffs from the cockpit.

We are at the captain's command in Nearly all matters, and the matters where we are not, we must inform him. Obviously, If there is a medical emergency, the first person we're calling for is a medical professional, not the captain - because baby, the captain is handy for a lot of things, but he's only as trained in Medicine as we are - But we still must report to him at first available opportunity.

Have you ever had a real hard landing, even enough of a thump to make some of the masks deploy by accident? Yeah, that was most likely the auto-land.
Pilots can bring a plane down so smooth and buttery soft you barely feel it, or at least, it isn't a real thump - and auto-land just puts you down according to a set of beacons, and puts you down with a goodly thump, because it doesn't care.

For more on this point, see
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/08/24/askthepilot242/index.html
and
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/08/31/askthepilot243/index.html

Lastly - Ever seen one of the larger passenger jets landing in a strong crosswind? They come in roughly half-sideways. Very impressive to watch.

~An Aussie flight attendant

[#3 posted by Anonymous , September 12, 2007 1:18 AM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDA_ZheB9mA

^passenger Aircraft landing in crosswinds.

[#4 posted by Ken Snider , September 12, 2007 5:58 AM]

While I debate the autoland comment above (airliners.net has a good debunking of this, Cat III autolands are performed regularly and don't cause anything like a bone jarring thud), I will say that after being obsessed of late with too much airline investigation media (both documentaries and reading the actual reports), there's no question that the main reason pilots are still in planes is to deal with adverse situations.

If you notice, the a380 has no "steering wheel" - it's Fly-By-Wire (FBW), and the AirBus makes use of what's known as "envelope protection" to always keep the plane in a situation where it is unlikely to stall or otherwise be put in danger - in normal situations.

Pilot training really comes into play when you're looking at adverse weather, or runway conditions, or, any sort of failure onboard the plane itself. These people train for hundreds and hundreds of hours to be able to react quickly and correctly to these kinds of situations. You'd much rather have a person in the cockpit trained to make split-second judgement calls in an emergency situation, rather than hope that the plane's software took your particular scenario into account.

planes aren't designed to be foolproof any more than cars are. They're designed to be controlled by individuals who know what they're doing and won't subject the vehicle to unusual situations without understanding the impact of doing so. However, given the impact of a plane crash compared to a car crash, relative speeds, and the fact that you're in the air, there are a lot more tools to help pilots than the average car driver. :)