PM1:
"Monsieur, the turbulences are increasing rapidly, what will you do?"
PM2: "I will wait until the auto pilot has had enough and cannot keep to its design limits, then we can catch the controls as they fall into our lap."
PM1: "Oui"
Of course NOT. The pilots were startled at dropout of Auto flight.
What caused the Trip? Was it a roll beyond 45 degrees? Had 447 sliced into a monster up elevator with the tip and then the rest of one wing? What is the definition of the "edge" of vertical development? Had she then recovered level flight upon complete entry into the vertical wind tunnel? Did the pilots reduce a/s to book penetration velocity? At lower mach, did she climb with the monster to 37, 38?
Did she then exit the vertical column into the monster's twin, the down cycle?
At reduced speed, heavy weight, and an AoA adjusted to the climb, did she break?
In the ensuing dive did she pick up sufficient velocity to reach a/s far in excess of critical? Down into thicker air, did the break take her vertical, or past it? This is all a possibility if the weather was dramatic enough. How many more times did she stall, partially recover, then break even deeper?
To me, it is the first transmission of ACARS that may have sealed 447's fate. Upset? By definition, of course. Stall? Certainly.
ICE? What if Ice wasn't involved? What do the pitots and ADIRU do with shear?
Does the computer know the difference between Unreliable AirSpeed and Discrepant readings that mimic it? Better question: had the computer been 'taught' the difference? Is sufficient Yaw possible in recovering from overbanking that engines and pitot(s) can be blanked? Long enough to cause Computer Fault/Fail?
bear (IMO) OTR for now, someone please save my seat.
Last edited by bearfoil; 31st May 2010 at 20:15.