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Old 29th October 2011 | 21:03
  #1496 (permalink)  
mm43
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From: NNW of Antipodes
Alternate Law 2 - Reduced Yaw Stability

After reading and re-reading a number of A330 documents and checking the FDR traces (p.112), I have tentatively deduced that the aircraft's tendency to a RH roll was directly related to the rudder Yaw Damper inputs.

It seems to me that the Yaw Damper applied left rudder as a LH roll was being recovered and contributed to the next RH roll.

The PF started applying RH rudder at 02:13:03 and over the next 45 seconds kept a RH bias on the rudder which helped to reduce the roll amplitude and the RH roll bias. In the last 40 seconds he left the pedals alone and the RH roll bias returned. It also appears that PF pedal inputs (up to the maximum allowed by the RTLU) were algebraically added to the Yaw Damper inputs.

Airbus documentation indicates that the Yaw Damper is probably compromised in ALT-2 outside the Normal Flight Envelope, and it seems that most of the fight with the rolling could have been prevented if the Yaw Damper was OFF. With low IAS, the lateral stability was undoubtedly compromised.

@CONF iture; I've not been able to find any documentation that indicates that the Outer Ailerons are unavailable in ALT-2, but it certainly appears to be the case.
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