syseng68k;
Re your post #224, good observation. The FCOM is a need-to-know user's manual and indeed does not explain the aircraft. I think this is one of the underlying issues. FBW and C-star law are not in and of themselves problematic but unlike complex hydraulic or electrical systems, the differences in "the how" of control are materially different and require understanding, as do the more bread-and-butter areas of high altitude, high Mach number flight and even some jet transport aerodynamics. I did not know and did not understand until a lengthy and patient exchange with
HN39 that the stall AoA for my aircraft was much lower at high Mach numbers in cruise flight than what Davies had expressed in his wonderful book, which was the approach and landing case with high-lift devices extended. Big, big difference and, even in retirement, I learned some fundamentals.
These are not taught very thoroughly in initial ground schools at least in my experience, and if one wasn't in the air force one's knowledge was increased largely through one's own efforts.
The frustrations of not knowing and not being able to find things out easily have been endemic - while easy to fly and a joy to hand-fly, "automation" has become as much a marketing tool as it has a way of solving the problems of flight. The resistance to knowing more than the "NTK". need-to-know, ground-school curriculum requires, comes first from how expensive it is to train well, and next from a lack of knowledge in those who must do the teaching, always of course, with wonderful exceptions from those memorable instructors who's passion takes them, and their students beyond NTK.
Learning is expensive and NTK and automation are assumed to "solve" that "problem" for a cash-strapped, (de-regulated) industry.
This isn't "THE" problem, because clearly the aircraft and the design's record is no worse in terms of fatal accident rates than conventional types - in short, the airplane and the design work extremely well but one should never be in a position to not understand and not anticipate what his airplane is doing.
Below is a nuts-and-bolts schematic of the pitch-basic loop. I hope it is of some service in understanding the pitch control of the A330.
