overthewing
Chris Scott explained it quite well. The time to avoid weather is well before one enters. Large commercial a/c are built (designed) to cruise, not to manouver. As gums has said, his a/c has a different mission, and it is not his personal comfort or peace of mind.
Radar has been discussed already, and the volume of opinion affirms the perception that much is left to guesswork. Any technology that is admittedly improving over time is an admission that the current kit is insufficient.
The auto pilot disconnects when it cannot keep up with the a/c. Turbulence and airstream impacts cause the slow to react airframe to lose "response", ie, it doesn't have sufficient time to complete an aspect change before the environment comes up with a new and different challenge.
I would board an A330 from Rio tomorrow. There is no increase of worry. What happened to AF447 will become known, and there will likely be no "new" gremlins to fear, only old ones to re-assess. My fear has to do with gum's eloquent statement. It is likely the FlightCrew will be burdened with the lion's share of responsibility. My hope is that in this new world of intercomm, those who have traditionally owned the forum will be fearful of appearing less than forthcoming, or even sly.
Where do you sit?? Since I left the cockpit, I sit Port abeam the engines.
happy skies,
bear
But takata, you speak of the solution in your post, one I think may never change. A computer can calculate, extremely accurately, and super fast. It cannot, as yet, display judgment, a "balance" of inputs, an abstract weighting of data, and a trained reaction to an uncommon situation.
For auto flight, abstract thought is a negative, it consumes energy and creates ennui. In the corners, where dwell the demons, the box is out of its domain. Here comes the seasoned pilot(s) to assess, entrain, and command. Your word, interface, plus an exhaustively trained segregation of appropriate domain, has been, and will remain the solution, No?? Further, I would not mind flying behind two sleeping pilots, with a tested system that allocated rem sleep to each, and had a sense of what may be ahead, sufficiently to collect a safe "get" and alertness. It is flight envelope that commands the choice of PIC, not simply the passage of time airborne. With this accident, I have the insistent feeling there was "surprise". Surprise is bull goose demon, imo.
Last edited by bearfoil; 14th May 2011 at 17:54.