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Old March 14th 07, 12:18 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Mxsmanic
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Posts: 9,169
Default Problems in a commercial flight

megaMAX writes:

During the entire flight, I noticed that the aircraft was continuosly
rolling to right, and the pilot was correcting every 10-20 seconds the
attitude. I noticed this, because I was looking to the right wing and
the wing was continuosly going down of few centimeters, and after few
seconds there was a slight correction.


A few centimeters? What type of aircraft was it?

Most commercial flights are flown on autopilot for the vast majority of the
trip. Thus you would have seen autopilot corrections, not pilot corrections.

- what could have been the problem? The right engine?


A crosswind is the most likely cause. Possible causes that are orders of
magnitude less likely include asymmetric thrust (including one engine shut
down, depending on the aircraft). Asymmetry in control surfaces. Bad trim.

- the pilot behaved correctly, completing the flight until destination
and trying this landing? An intermediate step could have been better?


Most likely there was nothing wrong, so there was nothing that needed to be
done. Constant small corrections are normal in flight. If there are
substantial winds aloft (and there usually are), the corrections are likely to
be mostly in one direction.

- we have been in some danger, during the flight or at the moment of
landing?


From your description, there is no reason to believe that the flight was in
any danger, and the corrections sound like nothing more than what is normal
for any flight.

- this episodes are made pubblic in some register, or the companies
try to hide them as much as possible?


There's nothing to hide or record for a normal flight.

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