why do both pilots have to move engine throttles?

Question

why do both pilots have to move engine throttles?

Answer 1

Helo pilots are required to manipulate flight controls with both hands- the cyclic in the right and the collective in the left. Typically, the cyclic requires more attention than the collective through most phases of flight, so we don't really want to let go of that flight control at any time. One can also lean their left leg against the collective (in a UH-60) to stabilize it, allowing us to manipulate the radios or other systems with the left hand. In the UH-60, the Pilot in Command seat is the right seat, though we switch seats frequently to maintain proficiency in both. In fixed wing aircraft, the left seat is the PIC seat. I'm not sure why it's that way, 'cause single-seat aircraft traditionally have the stick in the center or right position, and the throttle on the left.

Answer 2

In every safety minded flight deck this is standard operating procedure. ...and there is a reason why. The BEST way I could describe this is to have you look at a picture of a flight crew in action at the moment of take-off that I saw on the site Airliners.net. The (foreign) aircraft has just rotated for take-off, but it is all the way at the very END of the runway. They obviously made it because we got the picture to prove it....although it was dumb luck....because in the picture, NEITHER pilot has his hands on the thrust levers and sure enough, one of them has vibrated back from full thrust. THAT is why both pilots should "follow through".



When I've gone on flights sitting behind the pilots I've been thoroughly impressed with their professionalism in cross checking each other's performance. For me a non-pilot, it is sometimes hard to tell who is pilot in command. I've seen pilot flying sit there and seem to be doing nothing, while pilot not flying seemed to be doing all the work. Radios, heading and altitude changes on the MCP, passenger announcements.....but really the guy flying was the other guy. If a heading change instruction was received for instance, one of them would actually spin the heading knob on the MCP and the other guy had his hand right behind the other guy pretending to spin the knob and acknowledging the instruction received. Same thing with heading and altitude targets.....everything cross checked. Nothing left to chance. But the whole time, the one flying was handling his responsibility for total situational awareness.

Answer 3

We used to do this in B52s for two reasons:



1. With 8 throttles, it was never easy to advance them all evenly with one man's hand. (ADDED: In fact, here's another weirdo fact about B52s: Each throttle had two handles - one above the other - the pilot could grab one handful while the co grabbed the others).



2. If there was a need to make a sudden change (abort, for example) the first guy to react would override the other guy, since neither pilot had a panic grip on normal takeoff roll.



I suspect that some pilots apply a similar policy in their own cockpit, and even some airlines, although my personal opinion is that the safety advantage is dubious.

Answer 4

You got some good answers, but I have to comment on one. I love people who worry about things like calling them throttles, instead of thrust levers or power levers. One question, what do they call them when they move on their own? Autothrottles? Never heard of auto thrust levers. they had a throttle on the X-15, which was a rocket. Don't worry about minor things like that. You fly a jet, we are all really impressed. Any engine can have a throttle. You are also the type of person who worries about calling your certificate a pilot licence. It is a certificate, which is proof that you have a license. Look the words up, and you will see.

Answer 5

I've never seen both pilots move them although different airlines have different procedures. Some will have the flying pilot control the throttle while some may have the non-flying pilot work the throttles.

Answer 6

No, they don't. Some, but not all, airlines require this as a matter of policy.



This is a human factors issue, not a technical one: the pilot and co-pilot agree on the takeoff, and both share in the responsibility. Crashes have happened because the pilot said it was time to go and the co-pilot said not to.

Answer 7

You have been misinformed. On commercial aircraft, the thrust levers (they really aren't called throttles) are located in the center of the cockpit (the PC term being control cabin or flight deck) and may be moved by either pilot. There is only one thrust lever for each engine. Two engine airplane, two thrust levers, L and R, or sometimes 1 & 2.



If you look directly in front of each pilot, you will see the yoke which moves the flight controls. There are two, and they move together, but only in an extreme situation would you see both pilots manipulating at the same time. There is a concept of a Pilot Flying (PF) and Pilot Monitoring (PM) and only one, the PF, is actually manipulating the controls at any given time.



Only two cases come to mind where two pilots would be manipulating the controls at the same time:



1) If the PM became so concerned that the PF was making a huge error, and there was no time to talk about it the PM might grab the controls. This will almost always be the Captain, but that is not guaranteed. Even worse, the PM who grabs the controls isn't guaranteed to be right.



2) If the PF had a serious flight control issue, and needed some extra muscle power to overcome the problem. Many years ago, I had a stabilizer trim failure, and wasn't certain what the air loads would be in the flare, so I briefed my FO to be prepared to help "PULL" if I needed it. As it turned out, it wasn't necessary.



As I have often said during a brief, the only thing worse than 2 pilots trying to fly the airplane at the same time is no pilots flying the airplane.



********EDIT************

In some situations such as a CFIT escape maneuver, stall recovery, and for some airplanes, an engine failure, the PF will push the thrust levers forward to the mechanical stop, and the other pilot is charged with confirming that they are, in fact, at the mechanical stop. In this case, both could have their hands on the throttles at the same time.



*************Another Edit For Kiss...*****************

Truly, it is not a big deal to be whether they are called Thrust Levers or Throttles; actually I'm OK with either one. Maybe I was being a little pedantic here, but out of habit, I correct terminology. In the case of throttles vs thrust levers, I went back to the B757/B767 AFM, and found that it uses the terms interchangeably, so I will do the same, and I apologize if I offended anyone's delicate sensibilities!



On the other hand, perhaps you should lighten up a little bit. Part of the process of gathering knowledge is learning the proper terms, what they mean, and when to use them. People who ask questions here are trying to gather knowledge. Or, I suppose that we could all just start talking about that big flat thingy, you know the one that is not up and down, but side to side, you know the one on the back of the whatchamacallit. Me, I'd prefer to all it a horizontal stabilizer, stabilator, or elevator as the case may be.



License is a general term; on the other hand, a pilot certificate, category, class, and type ratings mean very specific things. A driver gets a driver's license, or permit, and a pilot gets a certificate. If in passing, someone asks me if I have a pilot's license, I will respond with a yes. On the other hand, if some here asks about that, then I will gently mention that it is a pilot certificate. But, of course, we can go back to thingy if you like.

Answer 8

So they both have something to do with their hands

Answer 9

This is incorrect... if you are talking about the flight controls (joysticks ect)... they move on one side and the other side moves too. the actual speed control is a series of levers that can either move individualy or all at once by one person.

Answer 10

There is a rule in some airlines that during take-off, both the captain and the first officer must push the engine throttles together in the 'spirit of safety' so that both of them are responsible for the takeoff and no one pilot gets blamed if there is a emergency after take-off involving engine power like stall immediately after takeoff, bird strike and engine failure immediately after takeoff



This is not the case in all airlines. Most airlines do-not have this rule. The only airline which has this rule is Swissair. I only know about this one.



P.S. don't confuse throttle with yoke. Throttle is like the accelerator of an aircraft and yoke is like the steering. The pilots don't move the yoke together at any time except during emergencies like jammed stabilizer.

Answer 11

Then how the single piloted flights fly?