On a separate subject,
Here is an interesting quote from the Youtube video comments:
"I was part of the team that developed and certified the Century 2000 Autopilot system and I could not have explained its functions any better myself. Excellent job as usual Juan.Over my many years working for the manufacture of this autopilot, I had many opportunities to train pilots on its use. I won't say I've seen it all but certainly too much.
I have also been involved in accident investigations involving other autopilots models from the same manufacturer. In those cases, the root cause was autopilot miss management as well. I think you are right on track to suspect some sort of mis-trimmed situation that precipitated this accident. And, in my opinion, its not the actual mis-trimmed control forces that can't be overcome as much as the extreme distraction and confusion such a situation causes. I believe pilots misdiagnose the problem as "I can't disengage the autopilot" when in reality the autopilot is disengaged. The remaining high control forces from an out of trim aircraft causing them to put all their efforts into finding a way to disengage the autopilot, which is of course fruitless at best and fatal at worst.
During STC certification flights, trim runaway analysis requires placing the plane in power dives with as much as 60 lbs of back pressure on the controls to maintain redline. Yes, I said back pressure. Surviving those test took lots of planning, preparation and mental fortitude. So its not hard to understand how a moderately to severely miss trimmed situation could go wrong in a hurry for a low time pilot, or most pilots in IMC conditions. The irony of this accident is that this version of the Century 2000 didn't have electric trim, as you so accurately explained. So if miss trimming was a contributing factor, it had to have been mis-trimmed by the pilot, manually"
Last edited by punkalouver; 14th Dec 2023 at 19:35.