Originally Posted by
Rananim
No,he did not hit the nail on the head.All commercial airliners are 2 man crew last time I checked.What better feedback is there than a great big control wheel beween your legs?Dont try to reinvent the wheel.It works and it works well.
So does the sidestick - in almost all cases the people kvetching about the Airbus controls and system interfaces are those that have never flown one. Also, not that I'm one for whataboutery, but EAL401 would never have happened if the L-1011 was fitted with a sidestick.
For what feels like the thousandth time, It's not better, not worse, just different.
Also, let's just examine your argument - you want the systems simple, but you advocate yokes and force-feedback. There is no way to implement force-feedback in a digital flight control system without making the system more complex and adding thousands more potential points of failure - that's just engineering reality.
Did you read the report?Is it you that doesnt understand whats been going on in the last 20 years?They couldnt fly the plane.They were automation-dependent and that dependence was condoned by both manufacturer and airline.
Actually the manufacturer seemed quite concerned that the automation was being used by at least some airlines in a way that they did not intend:
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/3...ys-airbus.html
This article came out a few months after AF447, but you can't say that Airbus have been blase about it, nor have they applied any pressure to have it viewed as pilot error and leave it at that.
@Franzl (below) - That's a valid opinion, sure. But I would recommend at least trying the systems out or making an in-depth effort to understand the design decisions that were made - and why they are made, before saying something "must" be changed. As yet, I've seen no evidence that either change you suggest would have helped in this situation or any other Airbus FBW incident, and seeing as there are thousands of the things flying people around the world, trouble-free, every day I'd say the design is as sound as any other as it stands - it's not perfect, but what system is?
[As always, caveat emptor - I'm not a pilot. But the fact remains that there are plenty of pilots on here that are either current on the FBW Airbus, have flown the FBW Airbus and are now on a different type, or are retired FBW Airbus pilots and very few of them have a negative thing to say about the control hardware or logic compared to other types. Several have also said that the aircraft is a dream to hand-fly, thus scotching any ideas about it being designed for automatic flight only.]