Preparing for incoming
I did a project a while back with BAE, where they were doing research on secondary systems on airbus. As part of that project, we had to provide a reasonably accurate simulation of the aircraft, as they were going to be using line crews from a locally based operator to "fly" the sim, which is a non motion reasonable representation of the basics of an A320.
We did one exercise in a Level D sim to find out more about the extremes of the envelope. Pretty much everything was disabled on the automatics, so we were flying a "raw" 320. The plan was to try and discover what the "basic" aircraft handled like without the assistance of all the computer protections.
It was "interesting", in that the first sim we tried it on could not be flown in manual reversion, in that if it suffered a gross upset, it became totally unstable, and eventually departed stable flight. We decided that the best way forward was to try the same exercise on a different manufacturers sim, and we ended up having to go trans atlantic to do so (pre 9-11). This time, it responded in a more predictable and expected manner, so we were able to complete the testing.
This is where it gets interesting. There were 2 of us flying the thing, neither of us type rated on Airbus, but with reasonable testing experience. In that no one had told us any different, we'd got to the stage of flying in manual reversion, with only power, pitch trim and rudders operating, and were working for a landing in that configuration. At about 500 Ft, we didn't like what we were seeing, so threw it away, did a go around, still in manual reversion, and put it where we wanted it the next time round. We then took 5, as it had been a pretty intensive period. On the way out of the box, the instructor commented "I'm going to have to have a chat with the lads inside about that, we'd been told that a go around wasn't possible in manual reversion, and you two have just shown that it can be done"
OK, it wasn't pretty, and we were working VERY hard to make sure that it didn't depart.
Now, to the point. How many people reading this thread and flying the bus have ever done a manual reversion landing in the sim.
The reason I ask is that it's been suggested to me by several people that not all operators train to that level, as the beancounters have determined that the chances of it happening are so small there's no point spending money on training for a situation that will probably never happen.
I could mention other scenarios that we've flown in sims where we've found subsequently that line crews could not comfortably handle the scenario that we'd just done, as their training didn't go far enough out towards the edge of the envelope to allow them to be able to cope with the extremes.
Some of the things we were doing were at the edge of the envelope, but surely, that's the whole purpose of training, and simulation, to allow people to find out where the limits are, so that they can hopefully remain within them but using their capabilities when subsequently operating the aircraft.
If the limits are not probed, then the limits get closer to the centre. Equally, over time, if an instructor passes on (hopefully) 90% of what he knows about a type, after several generations of such passing on, the level of knowledge may well have been seriously eroded, because each pass is not passing on the whole knowledge. If to this we then add the concept that someone who wants to broaden their experience is possibly "trying to solve a problem they have with the type", instead of trying to broaden their knowledge, there's a real risk that the people that have a genuine interest in knowing more will be inhibited and prevented from learning more by the suspicion that their motives are not genuine.
All in all, I look at some of the trends I've seen in the last 15 or so years, and I will admit to some concerns, for the reasons I've given above.
At to the "real" validity of those concerns, I guess I'll never know, there's no way that the beancounters will ever admit to being anything other that "working for the best interest of the company", even when their results are shown later not to have been so.
Time for the coat, and probably some reinforced outer garments to repel incoming.