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Old 4th April 2004 | 12:40
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Genghis the Engineer
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(737 classic, but this should apply to all airplanes, I guess),
Nope, it should apply to all aeroplanes with irreversible controls.

A great many aeroplanes with reversible controls will not self-centre without flying speed, nor should you expect them to.

Having said that, this really applies only to the smaller aeroplanes that I work with (up to Islander size mostly), I believe that the last airliner build with reversible controls was the Comet IV.

By reversible, I mean that without power, applying a load to the control surface will also move the inceptor. By irreversible, I mean that any such feedback is non-existent or artificial.

Presumably any large aircraft doing control checks before main engine start has either ground hydraulic power or (more likely) a running APU driving the hydraulics and electrics (pretty much essential I'd have thought since you'd want power to the ground steering and brakes wouldn't you?).

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