Cleared To Approach: The Aviation Blog

  Wings India 2026: Asia's largest civil aviation event, Wings India 2026, is set to take place between 28 and 31 January at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad. It will include over 150 exhibitors, 7,500 business visitors and over 1 lakh general visitors. Leading brands from the industry including Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, HAL, Dassault, Textron Aviation, ATR, De Havilland, Pilatus, Rolls-Royce, GMR, Adani, Etihad Airways, Thai Airways, Indigo, Akasa Air, and Air India have confirmed participation. Foreign delegates and Industry CEOs from top airlines are expected to attend this event. Aircraft displays exceeding 31 aircraft have been confirmed. The event is set to highlight India's growth in the aviation sector by highlighting developments in airport infrastructure, MRO and SAF.

 One of the most distinctive features of Airbus aircraft is the sidestick. Unlike traditional yokes, Airbus sidesticks are mounted on the side console- right-hand for the First Officer and left-hand for the Captain. Once an FO is promoted to Captain, they don't just switch seats and responsibilities, they also switch hands. One may think that years of muscle memory and training dissipate. An obvious question arises: how difficult is it for them to transition from right-hand to left-hand? In this article we will scrutinise exactly that. Input, Not Muscle Memory Airbus sidesticks don't work the way the prevalence of people may think they do. Unlike yokes, they don't work like steering wheels: instead, they function more like requests. Instead of moving the aircraft yourself, directly through sidestick movement, you're giving instructions to the flight control computers on the aircraft, which handle the details and optimisations of the surface movement. If you push the sid...