A couple of points, anecdotal I know, but I think it’s germane. (point noted from ModBod
About ten hours into my career, I was in the RHS of a DC3 going into Rochester. (The UK one.) For reasons that I won’t go into, we still had quite a bit of power on as we went past the little wooden hut at around 45kts. First I watched the cluster of waiting faces pan with us as we went by, then at my Captain’s face, then forward – to see what was making him pull that expression. It was trees.
I got on with the lengthy task of putting the gear up, while listening to twiggy noises hitting our parts at 45 kts. The aircraft had no business being in the air, but then something fortuitous happened. The ground fell away sharply cos of a highway cutting or similar.
It is entirely because a DC3 did not have ‘no’ in its vocabulary, (‘NO!’ in French) that we were able to make use of the sudden change in the terrain – a quite illegal excursion out of the envelope had bought us the time to take advantage of a lucky break.
I’m acutely (and to be serious for a moment, respectfully) aware of the accident that it could be compared with.
Years later, a take-off in a BAC 1-11 turned a little stressful when a fuel bowser appeared out of extreme heat haze. We shoved over to the right, confident that we would pass behind it…stopping was not an option. The real problem began when a trailer came into view.
If any electronics had interfered with our stick-shaking hop over that second unit, the results would have been obvious.
It seems that there is a positive consensus on the pilot’s final rights to take control, but can they be implemented instantly, and extreme cases trained for?