stick and momentum
- We never had a left-handed side stick.
- We never had problems with lefties using a stick mounted just above and to the right of one's right knee
Many of us were worried about our newbies ( Ell Tees right outta pilot training) forgetting how to fly a "real" plane. It didn't happen, and many went to other jets and commercial airliners. The Reserve unit I helped check out had many commercial airline pilots, and they flew the Viper and a host of heavies every week. We always thot the Viper would be the easiest plane for someone to hijack, as the average pinball wizard could simply "point" the thing. I have a feeling that the 'bus is harder to fly than the Viper due to momentum.....
I know my assertion of duplicating the stall entry is brash. However, JD and others have done energy calculations and such that seem to support my assertion of entering a stall before the confusers can react. Unlike the Viper, the 'bus appears to command less than one gee according to pitch. e.g. 30 degree nose up would be a 0.87 gee command ( also commands more than one gee if in a bank). Our little jet used a pilot-commanded gee. So Retired's example of unloading is a good one. Several of our pilots would trim for zero gee before entering a fight. Letting go of the stick resulted in a 'perfect' zero gee "extension" to gain energy. Conversely, at extreme pitch attitudes and a one gee trim, the jet would slowly raise the nose to achieve one gee.
The point of "feeling" the reduced gee may play a role here with the pilot back stick input. All the pilots here KNOW, they KNOW that you cannot trust your senses in IFR or even a dark night. So the old saw about pitch and power procedure has legs.
Lastly, most of us with lottsa hours have prolly had a static or pitot failure due to freezing. Easy to recognize and to apply the "power/pitch" law. Some of the new jets don't have pneumatic tubing directly connected to the displays or "meters" - the displays are electronic so the raw air data is converted to electrons along the way. So is it an electronics problem or a real lack of pressure in the tubing? Worse, the confusers use the electronic signals in any FBW system. Our system had separate pneumatic sensor systems - one for the FBW system and the other for navigation and weapon delivery purposes. Our basic airspeed indicator was a steam gauge!!! The HUD and other displays were electronic conversions.