Simviation Forums

... approach and landing, from a recent flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas.

Speed brakes!



Flaps 10 degrees! (Or is it 15 ... I can't tell .... )



The northern end of the strip, as we're on final

So what airline did you fly?

Cool shots...looks like he used speed brakes a bit early. Can anyone else confirm this?

Are you talking about the first shot  Ben?
If so then they are being used to reduce speed during the descent. Note the angle and then check the angle in the touchdown shot.

Ben -- flew Delta.

Okay my bad.

Nice..as far as speed breaks go...I believe that above 10,000 feet the pilots do not use them unless ATC ask them to maintain a speed above 10,000 and after flaps 15..I believe thats the way it goes

i've managed to use the speed breaks in incriments. but it requires using your mouse and dragging the spoilers. it works on most, like the 737 and 777, but i do have the tendency to leave out the spoilers on a 747

P.S. using the joystick trottle for the speed breaks doesn't work

Nice shots again.

speed breaks

I know I'm a fussy old wotsit but can I point out it's speed or air brakes, like brakes on a car. Breaks is when you smash something up.

Nice shots again.

I know I'm a fussy old wotsit but can I point out it's speed or air brakes, like brakes on a car. Breaks is when you smash something up.

Thanks for that Doug, it was knawing at me too, .....

.....but now for the speed brakes,... I think on the wing, they are usually termed spoilers, and in fact although they do posses some slowing effect, their main use may be to set and maintain a sink rate for the descending part of the flight.........
........in general, I have always been led to believe that in the area of speed brakes, they are made with the intention of no flight attitude changes during

Thanks for that Doug, it was knawing at me too, .....

.....but now for the speed brakes,... I think on the wing, they are usually termed spoilers, and in fact although they do posses some slowing effect, their main use may be to set and maintain a sink rate for the descending part of the flight.........

I'm in no position to correct anyone as none of the aircraft I've flown (except for the Hunter on which I had a few minutes stick time) were fitted with speed brakes - or airbrakes as I've always referred to them.

*** AAAARGH ***

I can't believe I wrote "breaks" for "brakes."  It's the kind of thing that I find annoying ... so maybe it's just as well tha I'm guilty of such a lapse once in a while -- keeps me head from getting too big.

I always thought speed brakes and spoilers were the same thing ... so thanks for that informative post, Hagar.

On fs (I've never flown in the real world), I've used speed brakes only on landing (by arming the spoilers to deploy automatically on touchdown on the jets).  The various fs aircraft manuals I've read suggest using them for accelerated rates of descent (say, between 2500 - 3000 fpm for a CRJ, for instance, if I recall correctly).  

However, in fs, anytime I deploy them in flight for a rapid descent (like those times ATC clears one for landing 10 miles out, when one is still, oh 10000ft AGL .  Yah, I should do a 360 but I hate those!), I have noticed attitude changes -- the nose pitches up! This may be because the autopilot is still engaged, and is trying to compensate for the decreased lift.   It always felt "unreal," because I never recall feeling such attitude changes during descent when I've flown commercially.  But then, I've never tried using the mouse to incrementally deploy spoilers -- will keep that in mind!

[quote]*** AAAARGH ***

I can't believe I wrote "breaks" for "brakes."

Couple things here...

First of all, there are three rides on top of the Stratosphere.  I have been on two of them.  The third did not exist when I rode the other two rides.  It was an awesome experience to say the least!

Second, I have always known spoilers and speed/air brakes to be the same thing.  However, I personally like to use the different terms depending on the situation they are being used.  For example, I call them spoilers when refering to their deployment on landing as they are fully deployed and their function is to spoil lift.  This helps keep the plane on the ground and eliminate the tendency of the aircraft to want to keep flying.  They really are not there to slow the plane down on landing (even though yes, they do create drag causing the plane to slow down)...they simply spoil liift to eliminate it from the wings.

Speed/air brakes are when they are used in flight such as on a rapid descent, or a need to maintain a certain speed during a descent.  When this happens (which is quite common), they are never deployed fully and in this case they increase drag...therefore their purpose is to slow the aircraft down.  Hence the term "brakes".

Make sense?

Make sense?

Makes perfect sense to me. Thanks for clearing that up.

Awsome series of shots IwannaflySC! Well done and thanks for sharing!

And great explanation of the brakes subject guys! makes a "learning"-member like me very happy!