Civil Aviation Development & Discussion

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 28 Mar 2015 08:30

Can there be conclusive proof that someone other than the pilots on-board have not breached the security of the cockpit.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Mar 2015 08:32

UlanBatori wrote:Guys: Think about it. If the co-peelot wanted to commit soosai, WHY set auto-peelot and take 8 minutes? Risk the Peelot managing to break the door with an axe?

Isnt there a fcs limiter such that unlike a fighter u just cannot push stick fwd and do a stuka dive? So he did it the easy and automatic way ... Time to pen his memoirs quietly....

Of the 8 mins he likely ate up 4 with that soothing move while pilot kept politely knocking on the door.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Mar 2015 08:34

There are even bank angle limits like 25' on 737 to give pax a smooth ride with drinks on table etc.

For the mighty poseidon this was upped to 45' iirc being mil role.

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 28 Mar 2015 08:39

w.r.t german wings crash , I read media report that the same aircraft had some "mid air emergency" a day or two before the fatal flight..(can't locate the report now)...

Also Lufthansa has been having a lot of union problems lately..

this is a 7 day old report..

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/0 ... t-m21.html

march 19 http://www.dw.de/lufthansa-pilot-union- ... a-18329198

Pilots of Germany's flagship carrier Lufthansa have announced that they will continue their strike on Saturday. Long distance flights and Lufthansa cargo planes will be affected.

could it be that the crash was due to Bad maintenance and all this soosai theory is just a coverup ...besides it even reduces insurance liability greatly...so win-win onlee..

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 28 Mar 2015 09:11

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... ccess.html

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 28 Mar 2015 09:37

indicative of the data available to ATC via the transponder.

The chart is based on additional flight parameters (DAPs) that were extracted today from the raw ADS-B/Mode-S transponder data of flight 9525.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 28 Mar 2015 14:18

If copilot was unconscious then the sequence of CDLS would have been different. Door could have been opened from outside well in time to come out of the dive. It is highly unlikely that Pilot outside the cockpit , and trying to gain entry into the cockpit, was not skilled in emergency entry procedure. He would have failed to gain entry , only and only if, actively denied from inside of Cockpit as it is a design element to prevent hijacking situation . There is no way unconscious pilot could actively prevent entry into the cockpit by a person knowing emergency procedure. Breaking door by using axe is not possible post 911.

However , he had many ways to crash the flight other than controlled descent into the terrain. He could have put the plane in unrecoverable stall or steep dive, or dump fuel. In both cases his time would have been used up in fighting the Flight Control system which would have tried to recover the flight from stall or dive beyond its flight envelope.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Mar 2015 16:22

Aiyyyooo!!

If copilot was unconscious then the sequence of CDLS would have been different. Door could have been opened from outside well in time to come out of the dive. It is highly unlikely that Pilot outside the cockpit , and trying to gain entry into the cockpit, was not skilled in emergency entry procedure. He would have failed to gain entry ,
only and only if, actively denied from inside of Cockpit
as it is a design element to prevent hijacking situation

But how do u KNOW that..

Pilot outside the cockpit , and trying to gain entry into the cockpit

Because he was heard on CVR yelling so? And Peelots are 400% honest? As I said before, apologies for implying ill of dead ppl, but that is what is being done about that co-peelot, hain? Common sense does not support the theory of his deciding to commit mass-murder-suicide, then setting the plane on autopilot to give everyone 8 minutes to defeat him. And not even doing the mandatory final AOA!

Peelot certainly kept OTHERS from trying to open the door. He may have SAID that he was using the right code.

Or maybe the CVR interpreters SAID that they heard the Pilot SAY that he could not get back into cockpit from pakistan. Remember MH70 and more recent MHxxxx over Yookrain. What comes out of these circles is not always the truth, to put it mildly.

Once AutoPilot was set, then all the other wiggles in the data mean nothing: the rest is feedback control. I still don't understand how 38000 feet could be ASL and 100 ft could be AGL. It was just saying, "go down well into BGL". But then why did the plane level out around 5000 feet and rate of descent go gradually to zero? This is confusing. Did the famous AirBoos Landing Gear Software sense ground proximities whizzing by, and decide that it was time to level out and lower the gear for landing? The two lines of gibberish posted before saying
9:31 38000 ft QNH
9:32 100 ft QNH
just don't make any sense from the above.

From the data, the Peelot had just leveled out at 38,000 feet at 9:26, 3 minutes b4 heading to Pakistan. Just enough time to make sure that co-Peelot was fast asleep/unconscious. Also, per the data, there was a 20-degree change in heading done when the new altitude was programmed in. That was a swift bank maneuver. Did the Peelot not notice it? What was the point of this maneuver? If it was the co-Peelot doing it, why would he do this and alert the PeeLot during Bee, causing G-forces to send the Bee 20 degrees to starboard onto Peelot's smart uniform pants? Why not wait a little and do a 70-degree turn instead? Answer: There was no possibility of asking for any maneuver after the Pilot had actually left the cockpit. Q.E.D.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Mar 2015 16:56

Singha wrote:and who has access to satellites to pipe these commands to inflight ac? Could this not be backtraced if such were the case.
Every govt on earth would be sending kill teams after anyone involved in such activity.no Queesberry rules.

Why satellite? Why not a very private narrow beam at 77 GHz or whatever they use on airplanes? If the transmitter is small enough to put on a satellite and beam down from 10,000km, it is small enough to put on a boat. I don't think power level is an issue.
The Brazil crash occurred over very remote sea water. Clear view for a boat parked under the flight path (OK, had to be a bit away from the storm).
The Africa/Red Sea crash occurred over ..not-so-remote sea water.
The MH70 weird events occurred over .... sea water, maybe well-travelled sea water. Perhaps done from another plane? From land?
The Air Asia disaster occurred over .. . well-monitored post-MH70 water. Again, maybe transmitter was on land.
Now they may have decided that 4 trials is enough to show that there is no comeback. Guvrmands are not revealing true cause if they know it. Time for an overland demo to remove all mystery about it.
What stops someone sitting on Alps with a nice portable computer and transmitter? The left turn could have been to keep it in range.
The obvious problem with this CT is that it does not explain co-Peelot being unconscious. Could Blofeld send a viper out of the thrust control lever to bite the co-Pilot? Disabling the cockpit door code may have been easy - even done before the plane took off.

But if no vipers or spider or scorpion handy, then this requires complicity of soosai Peelot? In that case, the CVR readers all have to be silenced/ made to commit perjury.
Or maybe not. Maybe the Chloroform vial in the cockpit activated by radio control right before the autoPeelot took over. You just have to watch enough James Bond movies to get the right solution.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Mar 2015 18:47

Ok so if specter/smersh exists what do they want and are they getting it?
Or like the joker in batman they have no end goal in mind and just love doing stuff?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Mar 2015 19:07

Another bizarre case this time mumbai.
Guy should have been nabbed and thrashed 25 times with a danda
Security scare at Mumbai airport after man jumps off plane, walks away

http://www.mid-day.com/articles/securit ... y/16098156

vasu raya · Post by **vasu raya** » 28 Mar 2015 19:48

Lucky that guy didn't get sucked into the cooling off engines or got burnt walking behind it

In the remote control CT scenario, the aircraft types have to be noted, it was Boeing before followed by Airbus? most of the modern airforces rely on these larger aircraft for AEW role which is a key enabler for air dominance

No truth in reports claiming hijack scare on Air India flight: Government

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 28 Mar 2015 21:03

CVR recording , as reported, indicates that Pilot in command left the cockpit after handing over the command to FO. Once FO initiated auto pilot changes including 20 deg change in direction and fast descent , the pilot outside could have realised and tried to return to the Cockpit. That is how knock, and banging on the door is recorded after two emergency attempts to enter would have been thwarted by flick of the switch by FO.

But of course all this is only if CVR data is correctly presented by french.
I think full analysis is still to be done and that includes DFDR analysis.
One of the CT could be that some NATO missile base shot it out of the sky in the alps.

and BTW 100ft is also ASL and not AGL just as 38000ft is ASL.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 28 Mar 2015 21:11

Because the plane hit ground at around 5000 ft ASL in the Alps.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Mar 2015 21:49

Chaanakyaji: Point is, Pilot could have put sleeping tablet in FO's drink or held choloform to his face, waited until he was out, said: "FO, U r in Command", doing a muttered "In command" to indicate that FO had responded, pushed his seat back and the FO's seat forward (sound on CVR), waited for FO to keel over, then set the autopilot and turned the plane, THEN walked out the door to the pakistan, then 3 min later come out and started banging on door loudly proclaiming that he had punched in the code but FO was blocking the door. Blocked the door so Flt Attendant could not try her codes on it.

CVR story would be the same, and now no one can know.
Singhaji: SPECTER would have done it to convey that they can 'take down' any airplane anywhere.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 28 Mar 2015 22:03

Either way one of the pilot was not unconscious and hence responsible, no??

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 28 Mar 2015 22:05

FWIFW

http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/03/26 ... -a-glance/

Prosecutor Description of Transcript of Final 30 Minutes of Flight

Start of the tape
Pilots speak in “normal, cheerful, courteous way” for around first 20 minutes of tape.
Pilot briefs co-pilot for landing at Dusseldorf. The responses of co-pilot become terse.
Pilot asks the co-pilot to take control of the aircraft.
A chair can be heard sliding back and the noise of a door closing. It seems pilot left for “call of nature.”
A short moment later, co-pilot activates buttons on the flight monitoring system to begin descent. The input can only be made voluntarily.
Pilot is heard asking several times via video-intercom to be let into cabin.
Pilot knocks on cabin door. No response, but breathing can still be heard in the cabin.
Marseille air traffic control is heard repeatedly attempting to contact the cabin.
Air traffic control asks cabin to enter 7700 distress code into transponder. There is no response, and the plane takes priority over all others for emergency landing.
Air traffic control asks other planes to try and contact the Germanwings plane by radio. No response.
Alarms sound to signify proximity of ground and loud noises are heard, suggesting somebody trying to kick the door in.
An impact is heard just before the final impact; likely plane hitting a bank before sliding into mountainside.
No distress messages were sent at any moment. The co-pilot never responded.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Mar 2015 22:12

That's what the guvrmands would like u 2 believe.

i.e., If CVR hasn't been replaced with another one with a dramatic re-enactation...

OK, just saw what Le Prosecutor has posted (why are these coming from Le Prosecutor, not from NTSB equivalent?)

1. Pilot briefs co-pilot for landing at Dusseldorf. The responses of co-pilot become terse.
2. Pilot asks the co-pilot to take control of the aircraft.
3. A chair can be heard sliding back and the noise of a door closing. It seems pilot left for “call of nature.”
4. A short moment later, co-pilot activates buttons on the flight monitoring system to begin descent. The input can only be made voluntarily.

Let's see
1. "Responses of co-pilot become terse". Indicates the guy is drifting off into unconsciousness.
2. Pilot asks the co-pilot to take control. BUT>>> standard airman's procedure is that there must be a clear verbal acknowledgement, like

"I am taking control of the aircraft"

First Office in Control

. None cited here. That is at minimum a gross violation of good procedure, for LePeelot to hand over control without an acknowledgement.

Did the Prosecutor neglect to mention it? Hardly likely! That is the whole basis of any "prosecution": to prove that the co-pilot actually DID have 'control' and responsibility. So why is it not mentioned?

3. Chair can be heard sliding back, and noise of door closing. But so what? The pilot may have opened the door, slammed it, come back and pushed Le Bouton de Confirmacion of L'AutoPeelot, then opened the door and closed it gently behind him.

The rest is drama. But note that everything is about what Le Peelot did or said, nothing about what LeCo-Peelot did or said. The man is being slandered after he gave his life for the airline. Probably because he has no family to sue the knickers off Le Prosecutor.

rsingh · Post by **rsingh** » 28 Mar 2015 22:21

UlanBatori wrote:Chaanakyaji: Point is, Pilot could have put sleeping tablet in FO's drink or held choloform to his face, waited until he was out, said: "FO, U r in Command", doing a muttered "In command" to indicate that FO had responded, pushed his seat back and the FO's seat forward (sound on CVR), waited for FO to keel over, then set the autopilot and turned the plane, THEN walked out the door to the pakistan, then 3 min later come out and started banging on door loudly proclaiming that he had punched in the code but FO was blocking the door. Blocked the door so Flt Attendant could not try her codes on it.

CVR story would be the same, and now no one can know.
Singhaji: SPECTER would have done it to convey that they can 'take down' any airplane anywhere.

Too many assumptions,ifs and variables. Keep it simple and you have answer.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 28 Mar 2015 22:31

Co-pilot was living with his parents in their house, a rather big one by German standards. So well to do, and he did get his early flying instructions in Arizona ?

rsingh · Post by **rsingh** » 28 Mar 2015 22:39

House may be big but low quality in cheep area surrounded by faithfools. So it is otherway around.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 29 Mar 2015 07:48

Aiyyoo! So u saying that Faithfools got 2 him after all? Any mysterious 2-year absences, returning with a BENIS accent? Tendency to avoid shaving cream and Gillette? A couple of days in hospital after unspecified surgical operation?

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 29 Mar 2015 10:15

that unspecified operation does not require hospital stay..you get discharged in a few hours...

Altair · Post by **Altair** » 29 Mar 2015 15:16

chaanakya wrote:FWIFW

http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/03/26 ... -a-glance/

Prosecutor Description of Transcript of Final 30 Minutes of Flight

Start of the tape
Pilots speak in “normal, cheerful, courteous way” for around first 20 minutes of tape.
Pilot briefs co-pilot for landing at Dusseldorf. The responses of co-pilot become terse.
Pilot asks the co-pilot to take control of the aircraft.
A chair can be heard sliding back and the noise of a door closing. It seems pilot left for “call of nature.”
A short moment later, co-pilot activates buttons on the flight monitoring system to begin descent. The input can only be made voluntarily.
Pilot is heard asking several times via video-intercom to be let into cabin.
Pilot knocks on cabin door. No response, but breathing can still be heard in the cabin.
Marseille air traffic control is heard repeatedly attempting to contact the cabin.
Air traffic control asks cabin to enter 7700 distress code into transponder. There is no response, and the plane takes priority over all others for emergency landing.
Air traffic control asks other planes to try and contact the Germanwings plane by radio. No response.
Alarms sound to signify proximity of ground and loud noises are heard, suggesting somebody trying to kick the door in.
An impact is heard just before the final impact; likely plane hitting a bank before sliding into mountainside.
No distress messages were sent at any moment. The co-pilot never responded.

This sounds the screenplay of a Mystery Thriller from a Hollywood movie. Cant imagine how passengers felt.
All my instincts say that this is not the first time and definitely not going to be the last time this happens.
Someone somewhere on this planet has the ability to create global chaos 1000 times that of 9/11. Co-Pilot might have been just a pawn in a big conspiracy.
If US wants to have complete control of World Air space ( It controls the cyber space anyways), there must be a reason, there must be a trigger point, a domino must fall.
Imagine few such incidents happen more frequently and US calls for a Global ATC. Obviously US will have the muscle and technology to drive this global network of all radars both passive and active.
US controlled Internet for half a century and it benefited immensely by the explosion of websites and its ability to monitor the web and other nations emails yours and mine included.
With the Drones coming up in future, US will see this as an opportunity to monitor airspace of all nations, to monitor whats being delivered to your home and your kids school.
If this is allowed, US will become a super power for next 200 years.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 29 Mar 2015 16:10

Flight data recorder?

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 29 Mar 2015 16:53

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/air-canada ... 756#fmc=no -- ac624, a320.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 30 Mar 2015 01:46

Bild Paper gets "voyeuristic" tape

According to Bild's report, Sondenheimer told co-pilot Andreas Lubitz that he didn't manage to go to the bathroom before takeoff. Lubitz tells him he can go anytime.
Lubitz is believed to have locked the pilot of Flight 9525 out of the cockpit before putting the plane on a rapid descent into the mountains, French authorities have said.
The flight took off 20 minutes late. After reaching cruising altitude, Sondenheimer asked Lubitz to prepare the landing.
Once that's finished, Lubitz again tells the captain he "can go anytime."
There is the sound of a seat being pushed backward after which the captain says, "You can take over."
At 10:29 a.m., air traffic radar detects that the plane is starting to descend.
Three minutes later, air traffic controllers try to contact the plane and receive no answer -- shortly after which an alarm goes off in the cockpit, warning of the "sink rate," Bild reported.
Next comes the banging.
Sondenheimer begs Lubitz to let him in. Passengers then begin to scream, according to the transcript obtained by Bild.
Another three minutes pass. A loud metallic bang is heard at 7,000 meters (almost 23,000 feet).

Now it gets weirder and weirder. Consider this:
1. The flight was not long enough for anyone to HAVE to "go" - usually. The Captain that particular time did not get to "go" b4 takeoff, hence the takleef. So out goes any claim of pre-meditation and planning for soosai.
2. Now the timeline for the co-pilot's extended soosai maneuver is 13 minutes long, not 8 minutes.
3. Loud metallic bang at 7000 meters - that was someone trying drastic measures to hammer down the door? There are no mountains that high over France.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 30 Mar 2015 02:17

from twitter

"we both have wives and kids (or parents!!) and are very happy."

is this going to be the new standard pre flight announcement??

Susan Davis @DaviSusan · Mar 28

Pilot on my @Delta flight announces he and co-pilot are ex-military and "we both have wives and kids and are very happy."
1,727 retweets 1,410 favorites

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 30 Mar 2015 03:37

chetak wrote:from twitter

"we both have wives and kids (or parents!!) and are very happy."

is this going to be the new standard pre flight announcement??

Susan Davis @DaviSusan · Mar 28

Pilot on my @Delta flight announces he and co-pilot are ex-military and "we both have wives and kids and are very happy."
1,727 retweets 1,410 favorites
Considering where that came from, when it is relayed by the sweet and lovely ex-pro-wrestler flight attendants it is going to be followed by:

And any of you got a PROBLEM WITH THAT?

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 30 Mar 2015 03:53

^^^^^^^

I am sure that there are many Indian politicians we would have gladly sent on such a flight. It would have been a public service.

member_22733 · Post by **member_22733** » 30 Mar 2015 04:16

Funny thing is, right after MH370 disappeared everyone was wondering whether an "Asian Pilot" is a "problem" since they can gift you your 72 while getting theirs.

After this incident we should maybe think that "young-white-christian-male" pilots is a problem.

/sarc

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 31 Mar 2015 02:38

The flight data recorder of the germanwings flight is thought to have been destroyed. There cant be an objective resolution.

MH370 has never bern found. As called out day of the accident.

The last few crashes -- air canada, air asia, germanwings, us airways,... have all been airbus a3xx.

Someone has to be computing the numbers, so big and small, are there more things falling out of the sky than they usually did. Or does it just seem that way?

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 31 Mar 2015 05:42

The flight data recorder of the germanwings flight is thought to have been destroyed.

R e a l l y? The CVR was found but the actual flight data recorder (isn't that placed far from the front?)

Still sneering at UBCN, o ye of little faith?
I was going to write something else, this just blew out the memory.
..Ah! Tubelight just came on. I meant to point out something I saw on SeeEnnEnn website.
There is a leettil switch in LeCockpit d'AirBoos. It says: "Admit/Lock/Deny". A leettil knob can be turned to any of these. Eeph this happens to have survived, I would say that it is still where it was set by whoever set it. Surely by now they have found the broken rockface where the nose of the plane impacted, and somewhere below that, in a jumble of horror and twisted metal and human tissue, they will find this switch.

If it does NOT say "Deny"... I think it won't be found "undamaged".

nandakumar · Post by **nandakumar** » 31 Mar 2015 15:21

Link to an interesting blogpost.
http://stevecoast.com/2015/03/27/the-wo ... t-weirder/
The immediate context is the Germanwings plane crash. But the larger point that the author makes is this. Making new rules to fix existing problems only unleashes new set of problems. You can't stop making new rules because somewhere down the road lies the ultimate fix. The other point he makes is no rules regime provides for larger volume of transactions. Example is the internet. Anybody can create a website. So you have e-commerce and a whole lot of other things involving the internet of things. But you can't make a toothbrush because there is rule which says that FDA must approve it.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 31 Mar 2015 15:27

Both CVR and FDR along with emergency locator transmitter are placed at locations near the tail section of Airbus A320 . Memory module is supposed to be crash survivable unless it was subjected to extreme fire.

And yes switch should be in 'deny' position for the theory to be considered.

amritk · Post by **amritk** » 31 Mar 2015 22:24

UlanBatori wrote: If it does NOT say "Deny"... I think it won't be found "undamaged".

I believe the Deny position is spring loaded (it returns to Lock). If you push it to Deny, the keypad is locked out for a few minutes. If you want to continue Denying entry, you have to keep pushing it to Deny before it times out. Airbus gurus please confirm.

Also for the gurus: the altitude setting went from 38k to zero in 0.01 second, which implies that it was not twisted in with the knob but was actually entered as a leg on the flight plan?

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 31 Mar 2015 23:15

http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Internat ... ash-736774

Paris Match and Bild obtained a video taken during the final seconds of the fated Germanwings flight 4U9525 and found among the wreckage by a source close to the investigation. Its origin – a cell phone – was clear. The scene was so chaotic that it was hard to identify people, but the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them. One can hear cries of “My God” in several languages. Metallic banging can also be heard more than three times, perhaps of the pilot trying to open the cockpit door with a heavy object. Towards the end, after a heavy shake, stronger than the others, the screaming intensifies. Then nothing.

How a small chip of phone memory survived??
Why Pilot asked FO to prepare for landing when the plane had hardly reached the cruising altitude and was not even halfway mark to its destination??
Why these people have not handed over the chip to authorities??
Who found it and if he was part of the search team then team's integrity is in doubt.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 01 Apr 2015 03:05

Portions of MH17 fuselage (not small pieces, large portions) are still resting in donetsk because the investigation just left them there. Those data have not leaked.

The germanwings flight data recorder appears to have lost integrity and is still suspected to have been destroyed. The housing has been found with its memory missing. The memory hasnt been discovered.

There will be piles of smartphone videos. not just one. There are pictures of smartphones with somewhat broken screens, but otherwise complete and unburnt, lying in the debris.

The air canada landing was another piece of remarkably flawed (polish presidents personal pilot qualification level) decision making by a pilot who knocked out the entire airport (Halifax wasnt it?) out of action and left it without electricity. With such pilots, who needs the people outside.

It is easy to conjecture.

However, the whole, x set y to z causing $^!4 to happen, is early/baseless determination and a media circus/trial/lynching. Pilots are essential part of this system. I wouldnt encourage maligning them.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 01 Apr 2015 07:06

Why Pilot asked FO to prepare for landing when the plane had hardly reached the cruising altitude and was not even halfway mark to its destination??

Hmm!! Hadn't thought of that one. Planning a loooong vijit to the pakistan, hain? Planning to spend rest of flight on Holy Throne-e-pakistan (sorry, I keep forgetting that the pilot is not with us any more).
Is it normal practice to just say, I do the takeoff, get it to altitude, u do everything else? Why does co-pilot need to be briefed on landing? Don't both look at the same airport info, weather etc b4 taking off?

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 01 Apr 2015 07:43

In a 90? minute flight, 30 minutes ascent/descent and perfectly normal to prepare for landing, esp.if in busy airspace with a circus landing. Dusseldorf is probably not a low volume airport. This is the sort of thing co-pilots do and there is a not a lot of idle time on short flights, and the amount of planning /setup depends upon city/country. The captain probably wouldnt have left his seat if this wasnt routine.