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Powering Down

This guide will explain the correct procedures to power down the aircraft when at the gate after arriving at the destination and taxiing to the designated gate.

Disclaimer

This is for simulation purposes only.

The level of detail in this guide is meant to help a Airbus A380 beginner correctly shut down the aircraft.

A beginner is defined as someone familiar with flying a GA aircraft or different types of airliners. Aviation terminology and know-how is a requirement to fly any airliner, even in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Prerequisites

  • Aircraft is at the gate after landing and taxi as per previous chapters.

Download FlyByWire Checklist

Chapters / Phases

This guide will cover these phases:

  1. Parking at the Gate
  2. Disembarking Passengers and Baggage
  3. Securing the Aircraft

Preface

Shutting down and securing an aircraft is an important part of the overall procedure. Obviously, less important in a simulator, as the next flight will have the aircraft start in a cold and dark state again.

If we want to actually do a turn around and start a new flight directly, the procedure will be a little different, as we would not turn off certain systems and at some point simply start with the preparation of the aircraft procedure again.

1. Parking at the Gate

Situation

  • We arrived at the designated gate after taxiing from the runway where we landed.
  • Aircraft is in taxi state as per previous chapters.
  • Engines are still running.
  • Lights might still be in taxi configuration (RWY TURN OFF set to on and NOSE is to taxi, LAND-ing lights are off).
  • APU has been turned on during taxi and is AVAIL, APU BLEED is off.
  • After Landing checklist is completed.

Gate procedures

What and Why?

We have arrived at our gate, and we are ready to disembark our passengers and cargo, and get the plane ready for the next crew. To do this, we will take a couple of steps to ensure the aircraft is parked safely, secured, and still has power and air conditioning when we go to shut the engines off. We also need to shut off our exterior lighting that is no longer necessary.

ANTI-ICE ............................................................. OFF
AUXILIARY POWER UNIT BLEED ............................................ ON
PARKING BRAKE ......................................................... ON
ENGINE MASTER SWITCHES (1, 2, 3, 4) .................................. OFF
SEAT BELTS ........................................................... OFF
SLIDES DISARMED .................................................... CHECK
ENGINE ALL N1 < 5% ..................................................AWAIT
BEACON ............................................................... OFF
EXTERIOR LIGHTS ...............................................AS REQUIRED
GROUND CONTACT ............................................... ESTABLISHED
FUEL PUMPS ........................................................... OFF
FUEL QUANTITY .................................................... CHECKED

Fuel Quantity

Verify the amount of fuel left on board is consistent with the predicted fuel remaining.

How and Where?

TODO: add screenshots and how to for the above steps

PARKING CHECKLIST ............................................... COMPLETE

Parking Checklist

APU ..................................................................... START
PARK BRK ................................................................... ON
EXT LT ............................................................ AS REQUIRED
APU BLEED .................................................................. ON
ALL ENGs .................................................................. OFF
FUEL PMPs ................................................................. OFF
SEAT BELTS ................................................................ OFF

This concludes Parking at the Gate.

2. Disembarking Passengers and Baggage

Situation

  • Parking checklist is completed.

In real life, there are many things that begin automatically after parking at the gate. The Jetway is connected to the aircraft, doors are opened, passengers disembark, cargo is unloaded, etc. The pilots don't have to do much to trigger these steps.

In the simulator, though, we would have to trigger these events by ourselves. For this, we use the FlyByWire flyPad's ground functionality or the Microsoft Flight Simulator's built-in ATC to start these procedures. There are also some nice add-on tools out there which help with this.

Taking care of passengers and luggage with the FlyByWire flyPad:

  • Go to the flyPad (view can be activated by Ctrl+0).
  • Connect the Jetway (PAX).
  • Call cargo/baggage (Baggage).

TODO: update flypad pax and cargo loading screenshot

This would take a while in real life, and we would not be able to shut down the aircraft before all passengers and crew have disembarked.

For a turnaround, we would start preparing the aircraft for the next flight, and the cabin crew would coordinate everything from disembarking the passengers to cleaning and resetting the cabin.

After refueling, the pilot would signal to the cabin crew that they could let the new passengers board the aircraft once the cabin is ready.

This concludes Disembarking Passengers and Baggage.

3. Securing the Aircraft

Situation

  • Parking checklist is completed.
  • Aircraft is empty (no passengers or cargo).
  • Cabin is cleaned and ready for shutdown.
What and Why?

In the event that there is no other crew that will use this aircraft for a flight immediately following ours, we are going to secure the aircraft. Doing this will put the aircraft into a Cold and Dark state, meaning whoever flies the aircraft next will have to do a complete power up. To do this, we will need to shut off all lighting, power and fuel pumps. We are essentially doing the opposite of what we did when we powered the plane up from a Cold and Dark state.

PARKING BRAKE ......................................................... ON
OXYGEN CREW SUPPLY ................................................... OFF
ADIRS (1+2+3) ........................................................ OFF
EXTERIOR LIGHTS ...................................................... OFF
AUXILIARY POWER UNIT BLEED ........................................... OFF
EXTERNAL POWER ....................................................... OFF
AUXILIARY POWER UNIT MASTER SWITCH ................................... OFF
EMERGENCY EXIT LIGHTS ................................................ OFF
NO SMOKING ........................................................... OFF

How and Where?

TODO: add screenshots and how to for the above steps

SECURING THE AIRCRAFT CHECKLIST ................................. COMPLETE

Securing the Aircraft Checklist

ADIRS (1+2+3) ............................................................. OFF
OXYGEN CREW SUPPLY ........................................................ OFF
APU BLEED ................................................................. OFF
EMERGENCY EXIT LIGHTS ..................................................... OFF
SEAT BELTS ................................................................ OFF
NO SMOKING ................................................................ OFF
APU MASTER SWITCH ......................................................... OFF

ALL BATT (Battery 1, Essential, Battery 2, APU Battery) .............. OFF

Now the aircraft is back in a cold and dark state.

This concludes Securing the Aircraft