Originally Posted by bearfoil
Dependent on the concentration and rate of uptake, it is logical to assume the Air Pressure differential migrated lower over time, indicating an airspeed that was progressively lower than actual value.
As the speeds declined, the ship would accommodate the "loss" of speed by increasing power, since energy needs to be added and altitude needs to remain the same, but as the a/c climbed anyway, (the energy was actually just right, the computer found it to be low because of ICE), the Nose would be lowered. This might continue until the a/c was zipping along at its assigned cruise level carrying too much power and actual velocity. Depending again on the rate of uptake, this false trimming would last until the a/c autopilot checked out, unable to control the Nose "hunting for a satisfactory Pitch".
One hopes that some more research (NASA still working on this?) will shed light on the degradation rate, or mode. (Then again, there are those Goodrich probes ...
)
Bear, in a curious way, the elevator and THS work together like Charlie Kaman's servo flap/rotor blade lashup in the old SH-2, and the current KMAX, helicopter. What you end up doing is using a small airfoil to change the pitch of a larger airfoil until equilibrium is reached.
Take a look at this picture.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...0px-N267KA.JPG
That little tab near the end of the rotor blade is the servo flap. The pilot's inputs via cyclic (stick/sidestick analogue) moves the servo flap, which changes camber of airfoil (blade) which aerodynamic forces then resolve into a new pitch angle. (The difference in actual function, and where the two are not the same, is in the moveable THS in an airliner being internally adjusted (motors and hydraulics) to a new position to reach the new stabilized position based on the change induced by elevator movement, rather than how the KMAX does its thing by harnessing fluid flow effects).