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Old 18th May 2010, 09:44
  #621 (permalink)  
apdak
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Johannesburg
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I crashed an Airbus once.
Here's my account on how i bought the farm.

The first time I did a go-around in an Airbus with the autopilot disengaged, I expected that natural tendancy for the nose to lift up on giving power as it had with every other aeroplane that i had flown before that.

Because the airbus fly-by-wire system demands a 1G loading with the autopilot out, the nose did not lift an inch. Now with very little back stick input from my side, it went hurtling with almost full power atraight ahead into the ground infront of me.

Luckily this was in a simulator.
I have no doubt though, that had this not been so dramatically demonstrated to me that day in the sim, I would never have been so aware of the danger that this particular trap represents. It takes a monumental pull on the stick (almost full tilt) to get the desired amount of rotation...

A go around, at, (or even below minima) especially having lost visibility, doing manual flying, in a high powered twin at low weight, has DISASTER written all over it, in an Airbus if you are not accutely aware of the trap.
Maybe this is what happened?
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