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Old 29th Jun 2011, 20:49
  #557 (permalink)  
HazelNuts39
 
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Pitch and power and coffin corner

IAN_W: Perhaps this is the reason for the repeated 'set power and pitch' effectively saying disregard all those messages they aren't important - fly the aircraft.
PJ2: Not just "perhaps", but without doubt, that is the key requirement in an unreliable airspeed event.
Ian_w and PJ2;

With all due respect to you both, I cannot fully agree with your views. In my view, disregarding ECAM messages has to do with setting priorities and the different roles that PF and PNF have at times of crisis.

I believe the prime motivation for "pitch and power" does not lie there but in flight dynamics. A string of incidents and accidents in the early years of jet transport operations led to the insight that chasing airspeed and altitude in turbulence very quickly leads to combinations of pitch and power (e.g. high pitch, low power) at which the airplane is very vulnerable to the next gust, frequently leading to loss of control. It was quickly realized that the better strategy is to concentrate on maintaining a safe combination of pitch and power, while allowing airspeed and altitude to float (within limits, of course). Since that became standard practice, the frequency of those events dropped dramatically. In my perception, the often abused term 'coffin corner' really belongs to those early years.
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