risingsunfitnes From Australia, joined Sep 2011, 32 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 6 months 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 4145 times:
Hi All,
I flew on a Jetstar A320 today, sitting 13A, so right over the wing. I noticed when we started our descent, spoilers were deployed to slow down as usual. So far, all would agree is normal.... What happened today, which i maybe haven't noticed before, is not all of them came up ? I know, obviously, there are varying degrees of how much, for want of a better word, you can deploy the spoilers... but it seemed odd to to me that of the 6, only three lifted slightly, and of those three, one was lower than the other two.
So my question is, have i just missed this previously in all my flights, and depending on the landing config, not all spoilers deploy in a given situation ?
PS Very good friend of mine was the FO, she was PIC for landing, great crosswind land at SYD...and forgot to ask her...muppet!
Goldenshield From United States of America, joined Jan 2001, 5418 posts, RR: 13 Reply 1, posted (1 year 6 months 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 4141 times:
There are two type of spoilers on a transport airplane: ground spoilers, and flight spoilers.
In the case of the former, as their name implies, they are only used on the ground. For the latter, they are used to supplement. or even replace, roll control during flight; however, they will open fully on the ground to assist the ground spoilers.
As for why they are aligned differently, it's just how they are rigged.
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I think this might be the key - if you were observing them shortly before landing (as in seconds, maybe tens of seconds) - this might be a result of a crosswind landing technique that calls for roll "into the wind", that might just have been big enough to cause spoilers to go up assiting ailerons. (Spoileron setup, is it called?)
The light at the end of tunnel turn out to be a lighted sing saying NO EXIT
pilotpip From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 3081 posts, RR: 12 Reply 3, posted (1 year 6 months 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 4007 times:
Many jets have multifunction spoilers. They serve as speed brakes and roll assist in the air, and on the ground as lift dump spoilers. I can only comment on the aircraft that I fly (the 170) but there are many similarities between the FBW system on that and the airbus.
The spoilers on the 170 are controlled by the FBW computers. The outboard 3 are multifunction and the inboard 2 are only lift dumps. When used as speedbrakes the computer figures out how far to put them up based on speed and altitude. Full at cruise isn't the same as full at 5,000 feet. When used as a roll assist the computer figures out the roll rate I'm requesting at the yoke and will add spoiler to assist the ailerons. At higher speeds it takes very little aileron deflection to roll the airplane so the most common place you'll see them helping with roll is on takeoff and landing.
dhawald3 From India, joined Jun 2011, 17 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (1 year 6 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 3960 times:
The A320 has 5 spoilers on each wing, numbered from inboard to outboard 1-5.
They are used as follows.
1 to 5: Ground spoilers- for reducing speed after the aircraft touches down.
2 to 5: Roll spoilers - assist the aileron in rolling, also used in rolling if there is failure of aileron.
2 to 4: Speed brakes- for speed reduction when airborne.
Goldenshield From United States of America, joined Jan 2001, 5418 posts, RR: 13 Reply 6, posted (1 year 6 months 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 3811 times:
Quoting dhawald3 (Reply 4): 2 to 4: Speed brakes- for speed reduction when airborne.
It should be noted that the spoilers themselves don't actually do the act of slowing you down. Rather, it's the combination of aerodynamic lift lost from opening the spoilers, which causes the airplane to start descending, coupled with the pilot slowly increasing the pitch attitude of the aircraft, which is, in effect, sacrificing airspeed to maintain altitude.
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tdscanuck From Canada, joined Jan 2006, 12709 posts, RR: 81 Reply 7, posted (1 year 6 months 5 days ago) and read 3692 times:
Quoting Goldenshield (Reply 6): It should be noted that the spoilers themselves don't actually do the act of slowing you down.
That's not entirely true. Although the spoilers do force you to a higher AoA to maintain lift (increase induced drag, Cdi), they also generate drag on their own (increased form drag, Cd).
Goldenshield From United States of America, joined Jan 2001, 5418 posts, RR: 13 Reply 8, posted (1 year 6 months 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 3637 times:
Quoting tdscanuck (Reply 7): Although the spoilers do force you to a higher AoA to maintain lift (increase induced drag, Cdi), they also generate drag on their own (increased form drag, Cd).
Aye, but the amount of added drag is pretty marginal compared to lift lost since the spoiler is relatively streamlined with the airflow. Now, when you compare them to the drag that airbrakes on the likes of the BAE-146, or dive brakes on dive bombers and gliders produce, that's a whole different story.
[Edited 2011-11-17 02:55:41]
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bonusonus From United States of America, joined Nov 2009, 398 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (1 year 6 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 3370 times:
Quoting dhawald3 (Reply 4): 1 to 5: Ground spoilers- for reducing speed after the aircraft touches down.
2 to 5: Roll spoilers - assist the aileron in rolling, also used in rolling if there is failure of aileron.
2 to 4: Speed brakes- for speed reduction when airborne.
Wow, great explanation and diagram. I had no idea that speed brakes, spoilerons and spoilers overlapped in function like that.
474218 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 6340 posts, RR: 10 Reply 10, posted (1 year 6 months 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 3341 times:
Quoting Goldenshield (Reply 1): There are two type of spoilers on a transport airplane: ground spoilers, and flight spoilers.
In the case of the former, as their name implies, they are only used on the ground. For the latter, they are used to supplement. or even replace, roll control during flight; however, they will open fully on the ground to assist the ground spoilers.
Not really!
Look at the picture of the A320 "dhawald3" provided in Reply 4:
There are ten (10) spoiler panels, five (5) on each wing.
All Ten (10) are used as ground spoilers.
Six (6) are used as speed brakes (in flight).
Eight (8) are used for roll control (in flight).
So of the ten (10) spoiler panels eight (8) have more than one function.
The inboard most spoiler on each wing has one function ... ground spoiler.
The next three spoilers on each wing function as ... ground spoilers, speed brakes and as roll control.
The outboard most spoiler on each wing functions as a ... ground spoiler and as roll control.
Look at the picture of the A320 "dhawald3" provided in Reply 4:
The only thing I really failed to mention in my original post was that the flight spoilers as a whole were used to help slow the aircraft, but that's only because I would assume that most all people on this forum know that doing such is their primary purpose. Regardless, though, my post pretty much implies that they are multi-purpose to begin with.
I refuse to call them speed brakes. I'll take "lift dumpers" as the brits call them, but not "speed brakes."
[Edited 2011-11-18 20:23:39]
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