Pilot Error at Newark! Reverse Thrust and Spoilers While Taxiing?

Real World Aviation
#1

Not my video, of course :) Skip to 00:40

Just like sometimes on advanced :)

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#2

I didn’t hear any sound change, maybe he was just testing?

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#3

1: I find it funny how the guy left that picture of the reverse thrust for the rest of the video.
2: I wonder what airline is this? Why would the pilot use reverse thrust in the first place?..

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#4

It has the star alliance logo on the winglet

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#5

He even had the spoilers on

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#6

Oh, I couldn’t make that out.

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#7

Its very common to see pilots test spoilers before takeoff, just to make sure nothing is wrong.

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#8

It cannot be a mistake. You don’t mistakenly pull a lever especially the reverser one. Sounded like an idle reverse to me. Some airplanes have too much residual thrust on ground that they need to keep a safe taxi speed. If I remember good some airlines allows pilots to use TR on long taxiways to maintain the speed and to ease the effort on the brakes.

You usually only check the flight controls, @Ksisky and depending on the aircraft, you will get wing surfaces to rise. For example, having full ailerons to the left will make the spoilers 2, 3, 4 and 5 rise (35 degrees if on ground + normal law for the A320 family).

@Erj145 or @Aernout may be able to tell you more about it.

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#9

That seems more just like testing to me…you know! a confirmation check before take off…just saying B)

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#10

Ok, never happened on my flights…

#11

It’s United Airlines.

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#12

It’s the one we have in IF, N14120 :)

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#13

Right on the money mate.

you will see this very frequently used with corporate planes like Gulfstream, and the citation x just to name a few.

Some comm planes will accelerate the whole time, unless taxiing up a significant hill. Some ill-advised pilots will counter this by dragging the brakes. Most of us will let the speed build up on a long taxi, then brake down to a slower speed than we want, and let it accelerate again. Some taxi routes might be a couple of miles or more. When flying the CRJ-900 I used to do this all the time. One great example is taxiing to 25R at LAS. It’s downhill most of the way. I would leave it in idle reverse and never have to touch the brakes.

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#14

How the heck did you manage to find that out?

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#15

It’s the only 752 to have the Star Alliance livery in their fleet.

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#16