Thread totally off the point
They were not fit to fly the sector having spent the day sight seeing including a helicopter flight (the pilot was interviewed on French TV) so they started one of the most demanding night flights already fatigued, let alone the shag fest the skipper was on, who chose to leave two relatively (for the forecast conditions) inexperienced copilots to navigate through a virulent ITCZ. PNF was on the cusp of not being current and they found themselves in an area of thunderstorms that everyone else avoided. Having been extremely fatigued twice and hallucinating I can guess how they felt..but both of my occurrences were driving; the second in a 30 mile stretch of contraflow on the A1M after.I had driven up from Darkest essex to Piercebridge to take the father of P2 at staines to Sutton Bank and get him a ride in a K21..he had been shot down during the battle of Britain and spent the war in the stalaglufts. Dropped him home and decided I would stop at the first services which were closed. I must have fallen asleep three or four times..no where to stop and heavy traffic.
So whilst you write about control laws, visible or not sticks..pitot icing..it is a complete waste of time as none of them were fit enough to operate a clothes mangle let alone Airbuses best.
PS I had 13 years RHS and 6,000+ hours on Jets when I first flew through the ITCZ located over the South Atlantic on the death cruiser. I did 20 transits in my first 3 years. At no time was the captain out of his seat and at times the second captain joined us. The crossing varied from benign to severe turbulence and one of the two occasions I hit the Turbulence button in 6 years. This disconnected the auto throttle, autopilot and trim with the flight director directing cruise pitch attitude. There was one transit where we couldn’t find a way around any of what looked like line squalls. 447 had better radar and info than we did.
Last edited by blind pew; 31st Mar 2023 at 16:16.
Reason: PS