Originally Posted by Lemurian
I can undestand your feeling, and to a point -though it pains me - I could agree with you. Perhaps have we gone too far in trying to insist on how NOT different the 320 is ?
It's still this 'difference' that I can't understand. I've only flown light GA singles and the occasional twin - plus gliders, my main interest - but I still remember the occasion, on about my third lesson, when coordinating ailerons, rudder, and elevators became automatic (exactly like learning to ride a bike, coordinating handlebars and body lean, plus the 'vertical dimension') and I began 'learning to fly,' in the basic sense.
Sorry if the question appears unduly elementary, but how does this sidestick control actually work? From what I gather, to bank say right, you move the sidestick say two inches to the right, and then let go (and, being spring-loaded, the sidestick centres itself). The aeroplane then banks right.
As I understand it, to cancel the command and level out, you have to move the sidestick the same distance in the opposite direction - precisely two inches to the left - and then release it again; and the aeroplane will then level out.
My question is, lacking the 'feedback' and self-centring that aeroplanes with normal controls provide, how do you know that you have exactly cancelled the previous bank command; and not either left some bank on, or corrected too far the other way?
Seems to me that there are only two ways that you could be certain. Either by observation (if the aeroplane doesn't level out, you've either overdone or underdone the correction) or by looking at some sort of instrument on the panel that shows the 'aileron command' situation?
Maybe I'm over-simplifying - I've certainly never tried to land a 60-ton airliner in any conditions. But I HAVE done plenty of crosswind landings - and I can't readily imagine a situation where I had to wait to see what the aeroplane did, or look at anything other than the yoke, to find out whether I had actually given the aeroplane the 'command' I intended or not?
Hope someone can enlighten me - and preferably tell me that Airbus controls don't actually work like that?