Weapons Hot
Thank you for your accurate transcription of what MD11 pilots have experienced for years- the major operators took the time to give formal instruction to their crews on the best techniques for the 'quirks' of this aircraft-- the rest of us had to glean what we could. Having said that- I loved this airplane, but it had some serious defects, namely, for some unknown reason, they(McDonald Douglas) decided to reduce the size of the elevator. As a result , after the engineers worked with the design, they had to install a computerized control system (known as an LSAS-- Longitudinal Stability Augmentation System) to help with pitch control. If this system was lost in flight the penalties were severe. How this design flaw may have played into this accident, I don't know, but all the DC10 pilots I knew said that McD D. took a step backwards when they built this AC (from a pilots handling POV)