Doors

[Ton van Bochove]

Hardy, would it be possible 'one day' to open and close doors separately? Reason for my question is that my virtual "customers" are not happy with the condition of their perishables ;-) The temperature in Kuwait was 44 celsius today and the temperature in the aircraft increased in 10/15 minutes from 17 to 34 celsius ......I love these little details !!!
But with the separate opening/closing the temperature can be controlled better :-)

[asboyd]

Get yourself PSX.Net with its doors module. You can then open and close doors manually until you get the temp you want....

Cheers,
AlexB

[Hardy Heinlin]

Ton, I have this on my to-do list, but it's listed at the lower end because there are add-ons that include this feature already.


|-|ardy

[Ton van Bochove]

Alex, Hardy thanks!

[turbodiddley]

Agree, being able open doors individually will be nice someday.

Perhaps there is a way to have doors close one at a time as the INS aligns? Base the timing off of when the INS units go to nav, then start closing doors individually.

[John H Watson]

Base the timing off of when the INS units go to nav, then start closing doors individually.

I really can't see any point randomly linking the doors to the IRUs. It's just not realistic.

There are a lot of real world factors concerning door closure. Ideally, you would want all non-essential doors closed prior to passenger boarding: i.e. so they won't fall out of those doors, so there is less outside noise getting in and to keep the aircon operating efficiently. Sometimes passengers are allowed to board prior to the pilots arriving (if engineering give the ok and cabin temperatures are ok). i.e. 25 or so minutes prior to departure time. Policy may vary from airline to airline.
Overwing doors should be closed prior to initial fuelling (otherwise they may not close).
Upper deck doors should be closed prior to passenger boarding. Engineering is required to close them and you don't want to the passengers to see engineers running around the aircraft with screwdrivers in their hands.
The MEC door can be closed after maintenance has been completed. i.e. Usually before boarding. Engineering will probably close the cockpit overhead hatch during their departure checks (also to assist the airconditioning).
Last minute catering is usually done via door L1.

The pilots arrive at varying times and one of the first things they do is turn on the IRUs. 25~35 minutes before departure. If you trigger door closure with the completion of IRU aligment, there would still be passengers boarding.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Perhaps there is a way to have doors close one at a time as the INS aligns?

PSX already has a trigger logic; it's just not the IRS alignment but this:

(Quote from the Aerowinx manual page 115)

The function Open when parked will start the opening sequence when all of the following conditions are true:
+ Beacon lights are off
+ Seatbelt signs are off
+ All four fuel cutoff switches are set to CUTOFF
+ Cabin differential pressure is below 0.4 psi

In other words, vice versa, the closing sequence starts when any of the above four conditions is false.


|-|ardy

[Will]

Nobody asked for my advice, but... :-)

I could see a PSX add-on with four buttons for the doors: Open L, Open R, Closed, and Animation.

Open L and Open R would instantly put the doors in the current "boarding L" or "boarding R" configuration. Closed would instantly close all the doors.

Pressing "Animation" would open a pop-up window which would have a top section, and a bottom section. The top section lets you choose between door states, and when you choose one, the doors would slowly move from whatever the current state is, to the selected state (i.e., through an animation). The states could include "Full loading R" where every R door used in aircraft loading or grooming is open, and "Passenger boarding R" where only the doors used in passenger boarding are open, or "Maintenance" where one entry door but all the maintenance panels are open. (I'm being a bit creative here in thinking of various states.) These states would also include "Closed."

The states would move from one to another through slow animations, as selected by the user. There could still be a trigger for closing all remaining doors, which could still be the current Aerowinx triggers.

Then, in the bottom section of the pop-up window, would be a schematic of the aircraft with all the doors shown. Click on any door to toggle its state individually.

Lastly, you could create whatever new door configuration you wanted for the states in section 1, by clicking on "Save current state as..." and then typing in a name. Thus if your airline preps the aircraft in one configuration and boards passengers in another, you could create those (and name them) on the schematic and save them as states, and then in section 1, call those states, and move from one to the next through slow animations.

If I could write add-ons, that's the one I'd write. :-) 

[Edit: forget the idea of a pop-up window for the animations. The whole thing could just be one window.]

[Edit again: Looks like PSX.Net does this! I'm sorry I didn't find it sooner!]

[asboyd]

Hardy,
I was under the impression (and a real pilot could correct me here)... the beacons are turned on to indicate the aircraft is under power to the ground crew.. I always turn on the beacons as part of the power up from cold and dark and therefore my doors are closed even before boarding can take place...
I wondered why I had to force them open... now I know.

Should the beacons control the doors if they are a warning to ground crew?

Cheers,
AlexB

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Beacons (the rotating red lights) indicate running engines, or other dangerous things such as powering up hydraulics for a test or simply towing about to start. You don't want to be anywhere near an aircraft with active beacons unless you are truly part of the operation and in communication with the ops leader.

To indicate "electrical power available" the nav lights are commonly used.

[turbodiddley]

The issue is that the seatbelt switch and beacon do not go on until the aircraft is all closed up and ready for flight. So if the doors do not close themselves automatically to simulate ground service doing so, then I have to either have all doors closed prior to starting the preflight, which is not realistic, or manually go to instructor screen and close them.

Having trigger tied to something like IRS aligned, or takeoff data V Speeds confirmed, would be about right timing to see the doors closing.

[Will]

Nav lights let people know the aircraft has power, and they also let ground crew see the wingtips and the tail cone at night.

Beacons indicate the engines are turning (or are about to be). The beacons are above and below the aircraft, not on the wingtips or tail.

turbodiddley, I find the "beacons" switch works pretty well for timing the closing of the doors. If you get your preflight done all the way to just before pushback, you can turn the beacons on while you're obtaining your pushback clearance. That starts the door closing simulation, and within a few moments all the doors are closed and auto, and you're ready for push and engine start. No need to go to the Instructor Pages. But your mileage may vary, of course, depending on the routine you follow.

[John H Watson]

The issue is that the seatbelt switch and beacon do not go on until the aircraft is all closed up and ready for flight.

The issue is that everyone has different operating procedures. On my old carrier, the seatbelt sign went on in the latter stages of the F/O's panel scan (but usually with the proviso that refuelling had been completed).  This was prior to the preflight checklist.

[turbodiddley]

Sure, that makes perfect sense. I happen to turn them both on just at pushback.

Good to know what toggles the doors now at any rate. Thank you.

[asboyd]

Will modify my process to suit...
Cheers,

AlexB

[Hardy Heinlin]

The doors animation is now also linked with the FMC V1 entry (big font) -- in PSX version 10.143:

https://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=4191.0


Regards,

|-|ardy