funfly;
As has been said before, GPS cannot give you airspeed - it gives you ground speed. It's airspeed that makes aeroplanes fly.
Yes, thank you.
However, should there be no speed information at all due to these failures, (I have had one such failure on the 767), with a stall speed around 200kts for a 330 of around 200k kgs at 350, (that's a guess - my charts only go to FL200 - anyone have anything higher?), keeping 350 to 500kts on the GPS (depending of course on wind !), will provide a rough basis upon which to fine-tune the power and attitude and should keep us safely in the air until we can sort it out.
For those aircraft without GPS, the Flight With Unreliable Airspeed checklist, of which there are several memory items regarding pitch and power, will tide one over until better times. As the autopilot and autothrust disconnect, the key is to leave everything alone. So often, we feel we must "do" something, when the best action in some cases is to do nothing, for a short period of time. The airplane was flying fine before the loss so the current pitch and power would be a good starting point from which to fine tune things. The challenge in heavy turbulence, mountain wave or if one is caught inside a thunderstorm is to let the airplane ride vertically while maintaining pitch and power - too fast is far better than too slow- pitch is key.
Sure is easy to say it and type it in the comfort of one's home, isn't it?....
DJ77;
Thank you for the information. Quick question - is it the "x" that designates a Class 2 message? My AMM and the BEA report suggest it's an asterisk, or are we talking apples vs oranges? Tx.