Boy go flying for a day or two and miss quite a bit.
Picky Perkins, Thank you, yes the copilots's techniques had been sorted out from the previous incident. It must also be pointed out that the previous incident did not damage the BOEING aircraft. So if Airbus wants to hammer the performance of Sten, which has been their contention all along, then I would simply point out that had they been in a boeing aircraft, all would still be alive today. Again, that points out what I had previously said that in 800+ aircraft fleet, the only planes that have been having this problem are the 35 Airbus A300605Rs. 100s of pilots have flown with Sten since that incident 6 years ago. Not one had anything other than the highest respect for his abilities. This is not pilots circling for the media. This is among American pilots talking to each other. If he was anything other than an exemplary pilot we would be saying so to ourselves atleast.
Few Cloudy. NO one but NO one EVER witnessed poor technique by Sten in ANY other circumstance. Over the 6 years flying out of Kennedy from the previous incident he must have crossed wakes several times. How can you say it wasn't sorted? I know EVERY person that flew with sten on the airbus (there are only 178 total captains in the fleet) and not one person ever said he was the slightest bit ham handed or footed! In fifteen years of flying I have seen plenty of crashes, a few of which we shook are heads and said,"dumb**** had it coming". No one, but no one thinks that this time! That is why the constant outrage from the AA pilots about the Airbus 300-605r continues!
For whatever reason the rudder did reverse several times. However, that did not break the tail off. The final reversals went PAST the rudder load limiter and then the tail failed as can be seen by
This link . Airbus said on the witness stand that the rudder load limiter could be overpowered. Again its a problem with the rudder load limiter design. In a ratio changer system this would be impossible to do AND the rudder would behave the same in all regimes, just like the elevator load limiter does (a similar pull force equals a similar Gloading in all speeds).
Instead the rudder gets exponentially more sensitive the faster you go, AND it is possible to have no limits. Again, this was not documented ANYWHERE in the airbus manuals, yet Airbus consider it to be a "feature" not a design flaw. If it was a feature, don't you think they would mention it?
But it is Airbus's position that they have never made a mistake in designing an aircraft, and now 265 people are dead, and 1 year later I am late for the memorial service for 9 of my friends.
More later
Wino