AF 447 Thread No. 6

[Chris Scott]

PF Armrest

Hi mm43,
That link produces "Page not found" for me, unfortunately.

TTex600 is right to raise the armrest position as a possible issue. Despite much discussion of the sidestick on these many AF447 threads, I don't remember any of us describing or discussing the armrest specifically. In my own several attempts to explain good and bad techniques for using the sidestick – and to discuss the possible difficulty of coping with the AF447 combination of pitch-alternate with roll-direct – I neglected to mention its importance.

To use the sidestick accurately, it's vital to be able to relax the shoulder and arm completely. This is particularly important in turbulence. The only movements required are of the wrist, hand, and fingers/thumb, which may involve rotations of the forearm. Although these may produce limited sideways movements of the forearm, these are only by reaction. The forearm should remain relaxed. The elbow must remain stationary, and be supported at a height comfortable for the pilot.

The pilot's seat position (fore and aft; up and down) is itself dictated by the requirement for the eyes to be in the correct position as indicated by his lining up two small balls mounted on the centre windshield pillar. It follows that the armrest has to cater for a wide variety of elbow positions. It achieves this by being adjustable for height, which means it also needs adjustment for rake. Both axes have a graduated scale. On conversion to type, pilots find the most effective position and memorise the alpha-numeric reading, which can be quickly achieved when entering the seat. As a line-checker, I was not always convinced that a pilot had found his/her optimum position.

It follows that, during a seat reshuffle, each pilot needs to reposition his new armrest. Sadly, we shall never know if armrest position might have been a factor in the mishandling of pitch in AF447. If memory serves, however, the PF had not changed seats during the flight.