I think there may be good reasons why the two radalts are separate, and the No.1 is more important than the number 2. The number 1 probably is powered by a transfer bus, the number 2 by a gen bus, therefore if you lose half your electrics the aircraft can shed the no.2 whilst keeping the more important no.1 working.
Also, I believe this allows you to dispatch under the MEL with the no.2 radalt inoperative, but not the no.1. All very sensible.
I probably did know once that radalt 1 controls the a/t but I had forgotton. I think most crews would not be aware of this. However, most crews would probably notice 'Retard' on the FMA, thrust levers at idle and speed decaying by 40kts. Also, the pitch attitude must have been very unusually high close to the stall speed, would have thought you'd notice this pitch up.
The difference between this and 777 incident is that the 777 crew noticed the speed decay, and intervened, critically, BEFORE the aircraft stalled, thus saving the lives of everyone on board.
From what I understand, the aircaft would not have flared because A/P B was engaged and taking it's radalt info from the no.2. So the aircraft would have maintained the correct glideslope whilst the speed washed off.
I agree you should definitely have your hands on the thrust levers below 1000ft as your hand is hovering over the toga button in case you need to go around, or if you hit windshear, or stall, then you can react immediately.
The captain should NOT take over in the event of a stall normally (maybe different on a training flight if the trainee fails to react). The F/O is PIC/US and is fully trained and should be expected to react correctly to a stall warning. The captain taking over simply leads to a delay and a few vital seconds when everyone has to adjust to their new role at a critical flight phase. The drill isn't difficult, it's similar to windshear or GPWS -
Disconnect A/P and A/T
Manually select full power
Select pitch attitude (20 degrees nose up for GPWS, 15 for Windshear, lower the nose until the stall warner stops / pitch decreases below PLI's.
Speedbrakes retract
Wings level
Leave rest of config as it is.
Best aircraft performance is achieved whilst 'nibbling' at the stall warner (intermittant stall warn).
Were the thrust levers firewalled? I know this has gone out of fashion but probably appropriate in that situation.
Finally, we are required to be stable at 1000ft (and MUST be stable at 500')- which includes the thrust levers being at approach power. I always check this with a view to discussing if we are likely to be stable by 500' and considering a go-around. I guess they didn't......
Last edited by Propellerhead; 5th Mar 2009 at 09:43.