PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AF 447 Thread No. 7
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Old 17th Mar 2012, 20:27
  #875 (permalink)  
RetiredF4
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Germany
Age: 71
Posts: 776
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Organfreak

Lyman claimed:
Quote:
Once in the climb, and probably very quickly, the odds go sour for recovery
Please cite an authorative source or support your contention with known facts. There have been hundreds of comments in these forums stating that the stall may have been recoverable. Is it just that you enjoy being a maverick?
Last edited by Organfreak; 17th Mar 2012 at 17:30. Reason: HTML typo
I donīt know, whether you consider that as an authorative source.

http://www.pprune.org/7066105-post66.html

As for the AF447 accident: I am an instructor on the A320 and we are now doing high altitude stall demonstrations during recurrent training. When given similar circumstances as the AF447 guys, less than half of the pilots can successfully recover even when they know it is coming. It is not because the pilots do not know how to recover from a stall, it is because pilots at all levels have not been trained in the dynamics of high altitude stalls. High altitude stalls are very different animals. Recovery at high altitudes require significant nose low pitch, to be held for a very uncomfortably long time, and you have to accept a VERY high rate of descent (15,000fpm or higher). AFTER that you have to have a very slow pitch up because a secondary is very easy to occur. Historically when training stalls pilots are taught to lower the nose to the horizon and add full power and to minimize altitude loss. You cannot recover from a high altitude stall using that procedure. If you read what happened, and know how to correctly recover from a high altitude stall, it becomes clear that the AF447 guys were caught off guard because the aircraft did not recover in a way they were accustomed to when training lower altitude stalls.

I have a lot more sympathy for the actions of the AF447 guys having trained and demonstrated high altitude stalls in Airbus FBW aircraft.
It is not enough to look at the ability of the aircraft to be flown out of the stall, but to judge the success of recovery atempts in view of the knowledge of the crew (and not only of this AF crew) and the ability of the aircraft.
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