PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AF 447 Search to resume (part2)
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Old 24th May 2011, 18:07
  #2273 (permalink)  
bearfoil
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syseng68k

hello chris. This was a long train on BA038. Redundancy, Reliability, and Reconciliation.

"...All 3 probes are currently of similar design and would thus be expected
to fail in a similar way worst case, representing an effective single
point of failure. Avoidance of single point failure is the first line of defense
in any safety critical work, especially relevant in this case when one
considers how important the probe info is for safe operation of the aircraft...."

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Aviation IS "single point". Flying an aircraft is not overly complicated, yet we are discussing complex ways to approach simple things. Of course the solution is complex, it proposes to be so. One Pitot is all one needs. If it plugs, we heat it. If it has a wasp nest in it, my bad. If it has tape over the hole, also my bad, though I did not install the tape. To fix to an a/c three of the same type of pitot is not only redundancy, it is the raison d'etre for three separate flight computers. Collecting, reconciling and determining are slick computer work, but something has to re-simplify to input the single command that keeps the a/c flying. Of course since flight is dynamic, it is composed of sensing trends, and arresting bad behaviour. It is usually no more difficult than juggling one ball. But Nature being who she is, sometimes it requires the panache to juggle two balls. Then Three, etc.

When navigating in a complex system, it takes time, man or machine.
One can have simple, or one can have complex, but one cannot apparently have both. At least not quickly, also apparently. Something about 447's situation caused the autopilot to quit. No big, hand fly. One does not understand why it is called for to "troubleshoot" the thing that caused the issue. Hand fly. She troubleshot herself, hence ACARS, which have nothing to do with aviating.

It really is that simple. If any argument can be proven that these gents got confused, I'll consider it. If they did, who paid them to do it? Who "trained" them to ?

It is counterintuitive. Laugh if you like, intuition in a professional is money in the bank.

It was NOT the pitots. Something got in between a patent and ho hum gotcha and the pilots. Who let the dogs out?