Gentlemen (and Ladies?)
All I can say is “Wow!” There is some really interesting and valuable information floating around on this thread, and I’m going to copy it and keep for my future reference. Having said that, I am hoping that I might be able to ask a question of those here, specifically Smokey and Bubba, however any of the rest of you certainly are welcome to throw your comments in as well. I’d much rather have too much information than not enough.
I have been watching the results of the Pinnacle Airlines accident unfold with great interest. A CRJ200 on a repositioning flight was dispatched using, I think, FL370. But for some reason the crew decided to climb to the service ceiling of the airplane, FL410. Records show that temperature that night was ISA+10; the crew elected to climb at a constant ROC, and upon reaching 410, they were very slow with an uncommonly high pitch attitude. They remained at 410 for about 3 minutes (with decaying airspeed and increasing pitch attitude) and lost an engine, autopilot disconnected, lost the second engine, entered stick shaker, got stick pusher, never were able to get either engine back on line (even though the ADG did deploy and did provide some electricity for some things), and wound up crashing, killing both crew members.
As you can imagine, there have been a lot of questions generated about glide angle, rate of descent, distance capability, etc., etc. I have been on a campaign for some time now, trying to spur interest in having direct reading AOA indicators in airline cockpits, and it seems that this accident may be enough of a catalyst to make that argument. I recognize that several things change throughout the descent with respect to the descent angle and descent rate; but I would like to know the following:
With a power off situation such as this, if a direct reading AOA indicator is available, is there an AOA that might be used (even if it had to be adjusted a couple of times) during the descent that might be used, instead of recalling and applying all the very good information posted in this thread, that would allow the crew in such a harrowing and difficult circumstance to get the best return from the only source of energy they have available to them, height?
Thanks in advance.
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AirRabbit