Tester 07
I realize it's a political hot potato. Regardless of whether the rudder inputs were the right thing or not, the mechanical characteristics of not much difference between breakout and max deflection force, and a limited travel certainly didn't help much.
I remember clearly the day that Ralph Smith (the Smith of the Smith-Geddes handling qualities criteria) burst into my office with a cry of something like 'It was a set up for a PIO' (referring to the AA Newark accident). Ralph was a genius, in the true sense of the word, and his work on eliminating PIOs in aircraft was pretty well regarded within the industry.
We have to teach a module on PIOs to the FAA in their courses here, and the discussions are quite interesting.
I'm always in the market for more videos or stories about PIO, so if you know of any, please forward!