However have Airbus taken their technology to far, trying to make the pilot a passenger?
No. Claim that anyone can fly the Airbus is clumsy and strictly unofficial sales hype that bears no resemblance to real world. FBW airbi still need two
pilots for safe takeoff and one
pilot for safe landing. FBW doesn't enable training departments to cut the groundschool/sim/line training hours, compared to classic types, for first FBW bus training.
Simply stated Airbus believes that the computer knows best
This is common misunderstanding, usually stemming from being completely ignorant of how digital computer works. Computer is a very sophisticated machine that knows nothing. Rottenray has put it it down very well:
Originally Posted by Rottenray
Compared to a skilled human pilot, automated flight systems are really nothing more than savant toddlers - they can do some things smoothly and more accurately, but lack the judgment required to save the day when things truly turn ugly.
Originally Posted by p51guy
We have to include also the A320 lost last year close to france in a delivery flight test, any news so far why it went down?
Preliminary report got out couple of months ago so those who read it know what happened. I just hope that the final report will answer how could it possibly happen.
Originally Posted by p51guy
I know, the official report was the pilot reversed rudders until he broke the stab off. If he was that incompetent the captain would have intervened. I think Airbus used him as a scapegoat to blame him for the faulty vertical stabilizer. Doing what he did would have injured anybody in the back of the aircraft and if the captain didn't intervene he was asleep.
Sorry to hear that, sir. As your
notions about AA582 are very distinctly at odds with
facts listed in report, would you be so kind to provide us with your alternative set of facts that preferably don't boil down to oblique insinuations? AA582 has left its trace in every transport category aeroplane's flight manual. Pick any you like and read the note below Va value in limitations section. It was very expensive lesson to forget.
It seems feasible given the number of other A330 airspeed indication loss events associated with the Thales instruments that in the case of AF447 the same thing happened on a stormy night when the pilot/FO did not have the visual references for a sufficiently rapid seat of the pants response to catch it.
Well if every twin engined widebody is Airbus, then LOT's Airbus 767-300 suffered similar problems recently. Problems with blocked pitots near convective weather are: a) luckily rare b) not limited to A330. Incidentally, flying any high performance aeroplane by seat of the pants is actively discouraged as it was found that flying by reference to instruments leads to increased active life.
Second is that sometimes, just sometimes the improper flight envelope is what saves your ass.
Maybe it's just my lack of imagination, but I fail to see how could any exceedance of the envelope be beneficial. As a return from beyond the envelope is not always guaranteed, I prefer to put such a romantic notions aside, try to fly my aeroplane in a manner that will never make such an excursion necessary and leave such maneuvers to gentlemen whose cockpit seats are supplied by Martin Baker, Zvezda and similar.
How easy/difficult is it to hand fly with the joy stick?
Very easy.
Is it better to have two hands on the wheel, or does that not matter?
Usually it's one hand on the wheel, the other on throttles - except for take-off and go around. So it doesn't matter at all.
Finally is the joy stick easy to handle in severe turbulance?
Never been in severe but it's quite easy to handle in moderate turbulence. Sadly, as it's pretty light it's also very easy to mishandle but then I've seen
guys stickstirring wildly and yet making good landings.
I don't think luck should enter into the operation of any device where failure means the loss of life.
Unfortunately it does. And if it comes into play in one departure per couple of billions we have to accept that we are doing very good job, no matter if it doesn't sound right for Joe Public or marketing department. Absolute safety is just as achievable as absolute zero but it doesn't mean that we should ever abandon our attempts to achieve it.