Originally Posted by
Chris2303
It's a bit hard to have system knowledge of an addon that Boeing deliberately kept secret
You illustrate my point perfectly.
There was, of course, no need to, and it is only the pavlovian reaction type pilots that would think it necessary.
Any properly trained pilot would have recognised that the auto-trim was running incorrectly - in other words a trim runaway and remembered (!!!) there is a memory drill to cope with that...
Back to the pitch/thrust couple; a ridiculous suggestion that this is a "design flaw". It is what it is. Is the asymmetric thrust/yaw couple a "design flaw"? No more than oversteer/understeer is a "design flaw" in front and rear wheel drive cars! Is the ideal-handling aircraft a Cessna 337 then? What bothers me is why anyone should aspire to this? Can't pilots cope with differences? Where would Al Haynes be today if that idea had been implemented earler on?
Autopilots and autothrust that "can only do part of the job". They can't taxi or track the runway on take-off! Because they don't need to. Why shouldn't one person have eyes inside on take/off? I thought it was a requirement! There's nothing the least bit odd about that. What is this suddenly urgent need for two of you to be looking outside ignoring the instruments? You can't see anything much in a low viz take-off - so it clearly isn't essential. Any more than it is in IMC.
What is this craving for total automation and totally benign handling? One isn't desireable and the other pointless. Unless you advocate pilotless aircraft of course.
Until this thread I never knew there was a feeling that the 737 had handling
flaws - I always thought it was a magnificent aircraft with its own particular characteristics (as does any other aircraft) that were not a problem once they were pointed out. Damn sight nicer to fly manually than an Airbus though - but then maybe we now have a generation of pilots who don't actuallyexpect to be asked to fly any more and expect the autopilot to do everything for them, even when it isn't engaged, a la Airbus...and consider actually flying an aeroplane as a black art. Let's hope they never encounter an aircraft that really does have unpleasant handling design flaws. Let alone a helicopter.
The above merely reinforces my fear that there are too many out there who regard any individualness or character in an aircraft a design flaw and any system that isn't totally automated or that even permits them to mishandle it is a design fault. No pilot error any more, it's all the manufacturer's fault.