It's a big misconception that there is alternate law in Airbus fbw software. Of course we call it alternate, but what it basically is is a degradation of normal law. There is only normal and direct law, and the intermediate position where one degree of freedom still is in normal and the other not anymore is called alternate.
The more protection you lose, the closer you get to direct law. You could now design three dozens of different laws, a gradual sinking into direct law. To make it more easily, they invented 3 positions, which makes absolutely sense to me.
I said it and I say it once more: You as a pilot don't have to know in which law you are. There is no ECAM message "YOU ARE IN XXX LAW". You can fly the aircraft in any law. Just where the amber x's are, that's where you lost your protections.
Now you laugh at me and say "if they (AF447) would have been in normal law, the aircraft never fell into stall". This might be right. But as a wise pilot you just don't pull these maneuvers, even if you can (in normal law). "It is possible in normal law" is no excuse for behaving like an imbecile.
Last edited by Dani; 16th Nov 2011 at 16:30.