Gums says
Any 'bus drivers here? Explain to us your "feel". From what we saw in the books few years back, it looks about like the Viper. In other words, none except for a spring!!! The pilot "feels" what the plane is doing for the most part. Of course, the 'bus pilot commands an attitude-corrected gee and a modified roll rate. But I can not find "force feedback" on the two sticks.
Bus sidesticks just have a simple spring, there’s no force-feedback computer or any mechanical device. Control sensitivity vs speed is taken care of by FBW and C* control law (or whatever has been programmed by Airbus, as they keep the details secret). The stick force is only dependent on stick displacement, not airspeed.
However, as airspeed increases, you need less elevator deflection for the same “gee”, which the FBW system commands.
It’s not the case in Direct Law, where you get elevator deflection as a function of sidestick deflection and there’s no force-feel, there’s nothing to stop you from overs-stressing the airframe at high speed with abrupt control movements. Because of that Airbus is paranoid about Direct Law and avoids it like plague in case of malfunctions. Also, there’s plenty of warnings in the FCOM about handling in Direct Law.
As as the last point, FWIW. While I have never flown a real Viper (would love to!), I had an opportunity to fly an F16 simulator at a friendly airbase and was surprised (almost disappointed) to find that the thing handled very similar to the A320, that I flew at the time! As an Airbus pilot, I felt right at home with the Viper side-stick, from the very first minute.
Also, had a friend or two, that moved from the Viper to the 320 and they confirmed that A320 behaves pretty much like a fully loaded F16 - even speeds/climb rates are similar
