Originally Posted by Dream Land
I feel in complete control with my hand guarding the joystick and red button as you feel with your yoke, how do I know what the control inputs are, by years of experience.
Dream Land, surely you would not know the 'control inputs,' since your sidestick would not move; you would only notice the
effect of those inputs (e.g. in the case of the Hamburg A320 wingstrike incident, the aircraft starting to bank the wrong way, downwind?).
Secondly, you wouldn't know how
much input the pupil had made until the aeroplane reached the full commanded bank, you'd be guessing; there'd be a distinct risk that you'd over-correct or under-correct?
Thirdly, to override the other sidestick, you'd have to press your 'red button' and keep it pressed for up to 40 seconds and make damn sure that the pupil didn't panic and press his/her red button and cause 'dual input'?
If all that's correct surely just seeing the yoke move the wrong way, grabbing it, and calling "I have control!" would be a lot simpler and quicker - not to say safer? Especially in a situation as urgent as the Hamburg one?
If I've got any of that wrong, please correct me. I got it from Eric Parkes' A320 Training Notes. Here's the (sorry, quite long and complicated) section he includes on the subject of sidesticks:-
"No feedback (feel) is given. Sidestick is spring loaded to neutral.
System algebraically sums the signals from both sticks if both are operated at the same time (dual input). However, the total input is no more than the max input from a single stick.
A red Takeover pb in the sidestick (also serving as autopilot disconnect) allows one pilot to override the other or to disable a damaged sidestick. If priority is taken an audio “PRIORITY LEFT (or RIGHT)” is sounded.
A red arrow light will illuminate in front of the pilot who has been deactivated when one pilot has taken priority over the other. A green CAPT or F/O light will illuminate in front of the pilot with priority if the other sidestick is out of neutral.
Last pilot to press Takeover pb has priority.
Pressing Takeover pb for 40 secs. will latch the priority condition (pilot does not have to continue to press Takeover pb). However, a deactivated sidestick can be reactivated by momentarily pressing the Takeover pb on either sidestick.
Green CAPT and F/O sidestick priority lights will flash during dual input and an audio “DUAL INPUT” will be sounded.
The Takeover pb and dual input warning system are commonly misunderstood. A green light in front of you means dual input or you have just taken priority in a dual input situation and a red arrow means your sidestick has been deactivated. These are two different things. Dual input is almost always unintentional and unwanted. The takeover priority may be something that needs to be done if a sidestick has gone bad or some other problem has occurred. However, if YOUR sidestick is bad the OTHER pilot must latch it out with their Takeover pb."
http://www.chipsplace.com/helpful/Ai...FlightControls