Originally Posted by Machinbird
The man's scan was obviously broken at that point. He was not monitoring pitch! If I may ask as a non-pilot: If you're struggling with roll control and your scan has narrowed to the ADI, is it plausible that you miss pitch altogether?
Most likely not, but you may not focus on it as much, depending on a lot of things. It also depends on what scan you are using. While I cannot fathom a scan that does not depend upon primary reference to the Attitude Indicator (Artificial horizon) that takes a primary reference pitch and roll, and then crosschecks from there), even that scan basis, if rusty from disuse, can break down under stress.
Is it possible that he was aware of increasing pitch attitude, but didn't care because 15° was his target all along?
While I would hope not, it seems that IF he was paying attention to his pitch, THEN he had a target pitch in mind. 12 def? 15 deg? 10 deg? Hard to say. As was discussed some threads ago, an element of the scan breakdown may have been him used to "flying the bird" (FPV). If the bird wasn't behaving as usual, or had dropped out, etc, then getting his scan into operation using the pitch/roll, cross check all else, might have taken him a few cycles to realize needed doing. If he ever did.
Perhaps he only reluctantly and half-heartedly gave in to the PNF's urging "You're climbing, go down" until at 02:10:49 he changed his mind and went for 15° instead. Was there perhaps a similar mental process taking place at 02:11:32 when he admitted "I don't have control of the airplane anymore now (...) at all" and, after the PNF had taken control, abruptly took the controls back?
What he was seeing didn't match what he expected, that much seems to be true.
Nerves of steel? Ice water in the veins. I doubt it. "We are going to crash, this cannot be..." "Four spades? Double". Eh?
Heh, that made me laugh.
Retired F4 Thanks for this:
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.
Flying in a flight regime they weren't trained for. That has killed more than a few ...
alanp: I understand,and appreciate, your desire to get to the root cause of this crash. It happened in flight school :- when the PF wasn't told to go away.
Maybe, but I think it's fair to say that the training and qualification system at AF seems to have some play in this accident.
1. How well equipped was this crew for the UAS drill? CVR seems to show that the response didn't quite fit what was in the book at the time. Training issue?
2. How well grooved was the instrument scan of either pilot?
3. CRM question: how does the LH seat pilot's scan, or lack thereof, and his attempts to get RH seat pilot back into the game reflect on the currency and training at AF?
4. As asked with some frequency before, how much time hand flying at 37K did any of the AF pilots have?