PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Flight Director distraction during recovery from an unusual attitude
Old 26th Jan 2019, 15:57
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Gauges and Dials
 
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Because this is a professional pilots' forum, it is sensible that the attention ought to be first on things that pilots can directly control (piloting technique) and secondly on things that pilots can influence (airline SOP). But to my eye there's a huge point that's being missed here; one that ought to get the attention of engineers and system designers:

The automation is supposed to help, i.e. by reducing pilot workload. Automation that misleads, for example by a FD giving bad advice, is not only not helpful, it is potentially fatally dangerous.

So, beyond deciding whether or not to shut off the FD during unusual attitude recovery, pilots ought to be looking at the engineers and shouting, "what the actual hell?" and demanding automation that does its job. In principle there is no technical reason why the aircraft automation cannot detect unusual attitudes and give correct FD indications, or , at a bare minimum automatically suppress the FD display when the FD display is going to be misleading.
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