[quote =SLFinAZ]oTTex your comments are way beyond my experience and understanding. I've gOot a bit of PPL time (long ago) but limited to 152/172 VFR. What your saying scares the hell out of me as an SLF. If I understand you correctly even under "manual" control the airbus is actually flown by the AP??
That seems at odds from what I have read....my assumption based on everything I've read is that it has all the built in AB "safety" but that within those parameters when off autopilot it is still equivalent to a corresponding Boeing model. Is that incorrect?
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Incorrect. Every Boeing (less 777and 787), Douglas, Embraer, Canadair, etc, places the pilots hands and feet in direct contact with the control surfaces. Airbus places a battery of computers between the pilot and the control surfaces. The 777 and 787 place computer there also, but the computers don't modify the pilots request before they order acontrol deflection. The Bus only gives me what it decides I need, not what I ask for.
The FMGC flys the airplane. FMGC = master computer in simple terms. The pilot communicates with the FMGC through the MCDU - keyboard that programs, the FCU - glareshield mounted knobs and buttons used to request specific speeds/altitudes/headings/vertical speeds- and the SS. Regardless which input device the pilot uses, the FMGC flys the airplane. Unless the computers give up and hand the pilot the aircraft because the computer can no longer do the job. That is the case withAF447, BTW.
I actually operate/program/"fly" an Airbus unlike certain persons on is site with obvious agendas and positions to protect. In simple terms, the Airbus is flown by the various computers. The SS is nothing more than an input device to the computers. The pilot does NOT receive the control outputs he commands unless the computers agree with his requests.
The thousands of posts on this forum alone indicate that there is more to the Airbus than just "it flys like a normal airplane"