Originally Posted by
CayleysCoachman
and in turn, THIS is what worries me, alongside the compete faith Toulouse has in their competence. Need I list all the famous FBW crashes, all the expert critique of the weaknesses designed into the HMI, all the near-misses, all the major errors with Airbus signatures at the bottom line, the famous letter saying there was no need to train FBW airliner pilots in unusual attitude recoveries, etc etc? I could go on. I know exactly how GS MINI is meant to work; I also know that unquestioning trust in technology dooms us to failure. If you need something like that to keep from crashing, you really need to be looking deeper.
Originally Posted by
172_driver
I am not really sure what you're getting at here. Manual speed additives have been used for a century soon and as far as I know no aircraft has ever stalled on approach due to inappropriate speed additives? You put a lot of faith in software developers. Now I am an airline pilot, but I also develop software and work closely with developers far better than me, their mindset is very different from that of a pilot (as I know 'pilots'). In software features are added because they're <em>cool,</em> not because they're necessarily asked for or needed by the end user. Now this is my opinion, but modern planes are killing the skill of being a pilot. I am talking fundamental skills. Do modern pilots understand they need added back pressure on the yoke/stick when entering a bank? Do they understand you need to trim in the aircraft in pitch whenever speed changes?
I know this thread is about GSmini, but I couldn't help myself responding to your glorification of Airbus designers and engineers. Granted, they're top line in what they're doing. Doesn't necessarily mean their system is the only way that works. I am more worried about the disconnect between pilots and the air, come future.
I will try to explain my reasoning.
Firstly, my flying CV includes single and multi engine piston; Manual very basic turbo-props. Semi-automatic turbo-props, basic manual jets, semi-automatic Jets, and Airbus FBW.
Trimming is of course required owing to the lift equation, where changes in air speed results in changes of lift, and which therefore require changes in the THS or elevators to maintain level flight. Since the very beginning, this has always bugged me - as an engineer - as to why pitch trimming had not been designed-out. Along came Airbus, and they did just that - brilliant !
It is obvious to me that Airbus in their early days must have purchased a B737 and flown and evaluated it. After extensive flight testing, they must have said, "this is very good, but with modern technology and electronics, we can improve it further" which they did.
Many 'conventional' pilots in my experience, do not understand the Airbus FBW, and some pilots have difficulty with the FBW - hence some horrendous crashes. I have witnessed pilots in the other seat shouting "don't fight me", when the FBW was actually assisting them, if they would only relax and let it help them. I have had to explain - with diagrams - to former Boeing pilots how the Airbus GS Mini system works, (opposite to the Boeing system).