Originally Posted by
bearfoil
You reply with three degrading possibilities for PF? Anything in your quiver that at least gives our Friend David a chance at saving his reputation? Because I know in my bones you think TRIMMING two barn doors is a good idea when you are about to die.
Incorrect. All I've said is that
we don't know. I don't give a stuff about reputations (either corporate or personal), I want to stick to the facts, or at least to give everyone a fair hearing. The only way autotrim is activated is if the stick is fully deflected and held there past the elevator travel limit. It's there to give the pilot more authority when the chips are down. If your friend David wasn't aware of that then it was a failure in his training, not his piloting.
@DJ77. Doesn't sound that weak to me. If you've got full authority over the aircraft with both your hands on the primary flight controls then surely with the correct training it's an improvement? Just because cockpit ergonomics remained fairly static from the 1940s to 1988 doesn't mean that it's the "right" way to do it...
@Smilin_Ed - you should know I'm not (the clue's in the handle), nor have I ever pretended to be. You've got to understand that I'm not slamming the pilot because I don't have the evidence to do so (nor am I the kind of person who would even if I did). I'm just a little fed up with some on here bashing the aircraft and systems design when they don't have any evidence either.