Truly an amazing thread, and quite indicative of the "aero-culture" of the majority of the posters in this forum.
Either we're talking about aviation safety or Pprune has become the last refuge of the vocal anti Airbus brigade.
Just two comments :
1/- Why do they only concentrate on the
paint on the static part of the safety bulletin ?
As far as I still can read, there were
TWO recommendations in it :
As a result of the investigation's preliminary work and without prejudging the outcome of the investigation, the aircraft manufacturer's flight safety department in France today issued new recommendations to Airbus operators.
It said during painting and maintenance it was important to protect all aerodynamic data sensors.
It has also said that tests such as low speed tests "must be performed at safe altitude and be preceded by a recall of basic rules as regards to minimum speeds and recovery actions".
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe today welcomed the recommendations.
(extract from the YahooXtra article).
Is the bit about performing low speed tests at a safe altitude, with a proper briefing just for the dogs ?
2/- The so-called technical discussion on A-vs-B FBW smacks of so much bias and intellectual dishonesty that it's hardly worth mentioning, and the fact that people talk about "
Prims and Secs" (which are not in the architecture of the 320 family but on the 330 and later models) shows the level of awareness of what's involved.The folllowing statement is quite representative of the general atmosphere :
If the envelope control protection in the PFCs intervene, you will feel resistance, BUT with a little force you can actuate the ACEs directly and therefore override any possibly erroneous input by a PFC.
That is the huge difference in both fly by wire systems. Such a feature would have worked on QF72.
First I would say that on a particular MH flight, it didn't work.
Second, taking into account the Hudson ditching,
which happened in Alpha prot, but two knots below Alpha prot speed and just 3 above Alpha max can the anti-A brigade please describe how easy that would have been on any other type (increased efforts on the yoke
and inside continuous stick shaker... yeah! easy as pie !)
As far as I'm concerned, I'd still wait for the official prelim.
And I hope that the majority on this thread won't eat their caps. I'd gladly provide the mustard.