Originally Posted by Brit312
If I remember correctly ground effect tended to force the aircraft nose down, so requiring the pilots to pull back on the stick as if they were flaring ,but in fact what they were doing was as you say maintaining the pitch attitude constant.
I'm sure you're right. The thing I wanted to stress was that there was a definite control input needed during the 'flare' to maintain a constant pitch attitude, but I did get the direction wrong....
M2dude,
Reading your description of the autoland, you must be quoting from documentation, no?
I've still got the AFM, but i don't think it's as detailed as that?
And for me it's now too long ago to remember it in full detail, without any documentation to cross-check.
This in my opinion is an absolute testament to the AFCS designers; ChristiaanJ and his colleagues at SFENA and GEC Marconi.
Indeed it was one of the things we were pleased about, getting it right, rather than the time wasted on the VOR mode (mentioned earlier).
BTW, it was still Elliott at the time.... both SFENA and Elliott have gone through a few permutations since.
CJ