slip and turn,
This topic started off discussing stall buffet and Mach buffet separately.
I meant to say that if you run into one OR the other, you do not suddenly go from no buffet to a buffet that shakes your plane apart...
Stall buffet is a warning you're approaching the stall, slow down a bit more and you DO stall. What happens then depends totally on the aircraft. Some stall docilely, some stall viciously.
Mach buffet is a bit the same thing. Ignore it and continue accelerating, and things will start shaking more, and at some point you may well get control problems.
Now the "coffin corner" is the height/speed combination where both these problems come together. Increase your speed: Mach buffet. Decrease your speed: stall buffet. Something you may be able to handle separately , but not necessarily in combination.
That's why it IS "bandit country", for two reasons.
* When you start trying to get out of it, it's easy to overcontrol, and get yourself really deep in the soft brown matter at the other end.
* Things like clear air turbulence, or the turbulence on the edge of tropical storms, may well suddenly and viciously fling you deep into one of the "forbidden" zones.
CJ