A320

Pilot in Command 
Upgrade for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002

Fly-by-Wire

Not to be used for real aviation purposes


© 2003 - Wilco Publishing

http://www.wilcopub.com
E-mail: info@wilcopub.com

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 Introduction
In the “good old days” of aviation, anyone wanting to take control of an
airplane needed some physical strength in order to operate the flight
controls and perform turns, climb and descents. The stick was directly
linked to the ailerons, elevator and rudder, the aerodynamical forces
acting on the control surfaces increasing with the speed of the aircraft.
With the performances of the airplanes increasing with the new appearing
technologies, some artefacts needed to be found. First appeared the
purely aerodynamical aids to the pilot like the balance tabs and anti-
balance tabs which reduced the strength needed to operate the ailerons
and elevator. The birth of jet aircraft clearly showed the limit of the
human strength and at approximately the same time appeared the
hydraulically-operated control surfaces. Hydraulic power were linked
directly to the ailerons, elevator and rudder and a lot less physical
strength was needed to fly the aircraft. To give the pilots the feel of the
aerodynamical forces acting on the aircraft, some artificial-feedback
systems consisting in a complex system of springs were implemented on
those aircrafts.

In developing the A320, Airbus pushed the limit of the system one step
further ahead. The physical links (cables) between the pilot’s stick and the
control surfaces were completely suppressed. The interface between the
stick and the ailerons, rudder and elevator was done through computers,
generating the “fly-by-wire” expression. The system is not new, it has

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already been applied to fighter aircraft since the ‘70s (like the F-16 for
example) and was even considered on the Concorde.
The implementation of the fly-by-wire allowed the appearance of new
concepts on the same aircraft: sidestick, autotrim and flight envelope
protection.

Fly-by-wire system

The fly-by-wire system first introduced in 1988 on the A320 consists of

three main components: the sidestick, the autothrust and the flight
computers.

The sidestick

The sidestick replaces the conventional stick

and is situated either on the far left of far right
side of the cockpit. These have the same
design of the gamers’ joystick with two
buttons: one trigger that is used for radio
communications and a Red disconnect switch
placed under the thumb on the side of the
sidestick. This one is used to disconnect the
autopilot or to take priority while flying
manually. The concept of priority is needed
because the actual order given to the
computers is the algebric sum of both sidestick
inputs. Therefore, should one stick be stuck in
an unwanted position (due to pilot
incapacitation for example), the other pilot can take the full control of the
airplane by pushing on the red button.
Compared to conventional stick, the sidestick allows more precise flying.

The autothrust

The thrust levers of the A320 also acts differently compared to

conventional throttles. Not only the engines are controlled through FADEC
(Full Authority Digital Engine Control) which avoids to exceed the engine
design limitations but also the levers have a different behaviour.
During autothrust operation, which is standard operation, the thrust levers
do not move except during take-off and initial climb, which is confusing at
first. During take-off, the pilot advances the thrust levers to a predefined
“gate”, being TOGA (TakeOff / Go-Around) or FLEX / MCT. The engines
then spool up to the take-off setting. At thrust reduction altitude, the
pilots retards the levers to the CLB gate which indicates to the autothrust
system that he can adjust the required thrust automatically. During all
these phases, the levers do not move at all.

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The manual thrust operation
is still available though and
works similar to a
conventional aircraft. The
levers can be moved
between the CLB gate and
the IDLE gate and the
achieved thrust is
proportional to the TLA
(thrust lever angle).

The computers

The Airbus 320 comprises some 150 computers, each of one dedicated to
a specific role (there is even one to deal with the toilet and waste
system). Among these computers, five of them are dedicated to the
interface between the sidestick and the hydraulic actuators that operates
the control surfaces. This gives a parallel redundant system with sufficient
backup. Each of these computer has been tested against extreme
electromagnetic interference and can operate with minimum electrical
power.
The chain of command is the
following: The pilots gives orders
by moving the sidestick, the
computers try to interpret what
the pilots wants and then sends a
signal to the hydraulic actuators
that move the control surfaces. A
further limit is introduced if the
computers estimate that the
pilots’ order will induce some
damage to the airframe (see
Flight-envelope).
The computers are 2 ELAC
(Elevator and Aileron Computer)
plus 3 SEC (Spoiler and Elevator Computer). Depending of the
status/availability of the computers combined with the status of different
aircraft systems (like the Radio altimeters, Inertial Reference Systems),
the aircraft operates under various “modes”. The normal low is the mode
when everything functions and offers the maximum protections. The
degraded modes are the Alternate 1 or 2 Law and the Direct Law. The
more inoperative systems, the more degraded law and the less
protections are available to the pilots. Although Airbus does not make a
great publicity about it, there is also a mechanical back-up using pitch
trim wheel and rudder pedals available to stabilize and control the aircraft
“through cables”. Saying that the A320 is 100% electrically controlled is
thus not true.

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The Flight Envelope protection

Aerodynamically, the aircraft has some limitations concerning primarily its

speed and load factor. As there is a maximum structural speed that
cannot be exceeded, there is also a minimum speed below which the
aircraft cannot descend without stalling. The maximum speed (either
expressed in knots or in Mach number at high altitudes) is linked amongst
other factors to the sonic shockwaves that might appear if the air flowing
around the wings/fuselage exceeds the speed of sound. The lowest speed
varies with the aircraft configuration (slats/flaps) and also varies with the
load factor. The AOA (Angle Of Attack) at which the stall occurs is fixed for
a particular configuration and is continuously measured by aircraft sensors
as is the speed and the load factor. Also note that a too high load factor
can damage the structure of the aircraft. So there is a mean for the flight
computers to know when the aircraft approaches that limits.

Airbus has determined these limits and added some more like bank angle
and minimum/maximum nose up/down attitude and the aircraft. One role
of the flight by wire is to keep the A320 within these limits, or in the
“envelope”.

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Control in pitch

In Normal Law, the sidestick does not select a control deflection or

attitude directly, as it would be the case with a conventional aircraft, and
the elevator deflection is not proportional to sidestick movement. A fore or
aft stick application select “g”. If a pitch input is made and held, the
aircraft will pitch at a constant “g” until the flight envelope limits are met.
In order to climb the pilots initially pull the stick back, increasing the “g”
number temporarily. When the aircraft has come to the desired attitude,
he then releases the stick (coming back to 1g) and the aircraft then keeps
its attitude (flight vector). This combined to the autotrim feature of the
A320 means that even if the speed decreases and unlike conventional
aircraft, the aircraft will try to keep its body angle regardless of speed (at
least until this in above minimum speed). This of course with autothrust
selected OFF.
It takes a while to get used to the fact that stick inputs does not control
the elevator directly and rather ask for a specific “g”. Worthwhile is also
that when approaching to the ground (either for take-off and landing), the
stick operates gradually more conventionally and has a more direct effect
on the elevator.
The maximum G (load factor) achievable during normal law is +2,5G / -
1,0 G while the body attitude is limited to +30° nose up / -15° nose
down.

Control in roll

As this is the case with pitch, the lateral inputs on the sidestick does not
control directly the ailerons. The sidestick demands roll rate. The higher
the stick deflection, the higher the roll rate (=the speed at which the
aircraft will turn around its longitudinal axis). In order to roll the aircraft to
a specific bank angle, the pilots moves the stick laterally. This induces a
roll rate and the aircraft starts banking in the desired direction. When the
aircraft is at the desired bank angle the pilots releases the stick and the
aircraft maintains its attitude (providing that the bank angle is inferior to
33°). Here also, the autotrim function avoids the induced nose-drop that
is encountered in any conventional aircraft. This also can be confusing to
the pilots used to conventional aircraft and it is sometimes seen that pilots
at first tend to climb while turning.
If the pilot maintains lateral stick deflection through 33° of bank, the
aircraft will keep banking up to 67° maximum. As soon as he releases the
stick, the Airbus will come back automatically to a bank angle of 33° of
bank. Above 33° angle of bank, the pilots must also refer to a more
conventional behaviour and keep an aft pressure to maintain the nose
attitude.

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Speed protection

The fourth area of protection deals with the aircraft speed. As explained in
the flight envelope paragraph, the aircraft will prevent the pilot to exceed
the maximum speed of the aircraft. Would the pilot put the aircraft in a
position (nose down) that will exceed the maximum speed, the flight
computer will induce an automatic nose-up input to reduce the aircraft
speed, even if the pilot gives a nose-down input with the sidestick.
Through the AOA sensors, the A320 can compute the aircraft stalling
speed. This minimum speed is indicated on the attitude indicator (see
cockpit manual). Would the aircraft approach the stalling speed, the
computer will enter a special mode called “ALPHA FLOOR”. The Alpha Floor
is a autothrust low speed protection. When activated, it provides TOGA
thrust, even if the autothrust is disengaged.
Even if the pilot pulls the sidestick full aft, in normal law the flight
computer is able to maintain the speed above stalling speed by applying
not only TOGA thrust but also by counteracting the pilot’s input and
applying forward stick if needed.

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