Man-machine interface and anomalies

[Natstrackalpha]

Are you sure this is not thread AF--- no 8?

This is to lyal, safeteezee, TTEX600, RRNDB, Lyman and anyone I have forgotten or have spelt their name wrong. (you know, people are beginning to talk about us . ?)
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Guys. sorry. I was generalising. I thought you were discussing a mere concept, I apologise. Also, I was not being offensive when I asked if you were a machine, but I see you took no offence, excellent.

Taking a more practical and serious view, as you mentioned the AF, I think you mean the 330 / Atlantic?

I can comment on this and it is easy for me as I saw it on a documentry, on the T.V. but - for that reason only. However, much can we "apply" from such horrendous happenings - I also think I can understand and address what you are saying.

The situation in its worst moments (before the final one, ) had obviously provided the crew with a surreal situation.
Also, at high altitude at night having their little minds reversed as little Alice through the looking glass herself!!

At this point the situation is really a problem. I am not going into the detail as everyone knows the conflicting factors. The resultant factor (of this discussion) is what we have learned, which is: At a set power setting, and a set attitude we/they could have maintained level flight (which is the minimum a pilot could ask for) from that point on we would consider the nav implications as we have just taken it out of A/P which had obviously and most noisily tried to kill us. TTEX600 would have already have disengaged the A/P, me too in fact, and gone for Standby Artificial Horizon, which should have been playing ball ok, the standby Altimeter would have been tits up as would anything else from the static vent pitot tube . . system. This is not an Airbus problem, this is a very severe icing problem
Without dragging it all out again, but, as you are interested. Instead of the FMS, well, bon d`accord, it was the ADIRS actually, instead of the brains of the thing saying to itself, hey, we are all iced up therefore none of the information is reliable, it, the system(s), believed all the nonsense it was receiving from the . . inputs from the static Pitot and the ADIRS which complicates things further and everything is [also] derived from Groundspeed, as well as airspeed [inputs] - the FMGS Flight Management and Guidance System - therefore, simply conducts the flight in Association with its inputs, into its system - unfortunately all the inputs were giving wrong information due to the fact that all the sensore (they are not sensors per se` am just trying to Keep It Simple - `cos am Stupid.)

So extreme icing has block correct readings into the system.
The system not only displays incorrect data now but, the FMGS is telling it (the aeroplane) to stuff the nose down as we are losing airspeed. Coupled with some not so yummy overspeed indications all straight through the computor like a laxitive) and, and, stall warner, all more or less at the same time - this is where TTEX600 comes in . . dis-engages the A/P to stop the aircraft from commiting Hari Kari - puts the attitude where he wants it (8deg nose pitch up I think it was) and 80% N2? Sounds plausible for a setting, and hopefully, switched off all theGoddamn noise on the flightdeck, which, was obviously a cocophony, or a cresendo, a mess basically - blame Mother Nature and her huge ice bearing storm clouds and the surrounding air which was cold enough and moist enough to ice up the aircraft beyond its de-icing capabilites - however, the aircraft was flyable. If the same thing happened tomorrow, obviously, we would handle it and think "that was easy" as we have seen it, and learned how to cope with it and how to "fly the aircraft" in this situation.

You know aviation is safe, but it is young, it is barely 104 years old. We learn new stuff all the time. Only during the second world war did they discover what jetstreams (near the tropopause) were and how they could be used by pilots.
We are discovering ever new things about the jet engines we fly - how icing can occur in air which is clear supposedly will only produce ice crystals, how reduction in power at altitude can produce ice induction, no accelleration, vibration and scare us fartless, thinking we have an engine problem, where there is nothing of the sort and there is a cure to this and other "anomolies" most of which are not dangerous, provided we - we fly, the aircraft. Because, we started flying with a simple aeroplane which had little in the way of instrumentation and nothing in the way of FMS, computors, a myriad of pitot tubes and static vents or ADIRS systems which has to balance everything with its gyros, GPS inputs and relative position and its groundspeed - so to fly, is easy, or not depending on which way you look at it.
It is very simple to fly, if not easy . . ? It is not as complex as trying to figure out why the multimillion dollar piece of French pastry is just tripping out of its brain and simply going beserk.

It is just a noise, turn it off and - fly.

EVERYTHING IS EASY IN HINDSIGHT

IF THE MACHINE GETS SICK, SWITCH IT OFF, IT WILL THANK YOU FOR THIS, BY BRINGING YOU INTO LAND - after you have got rid of all the ice. you might even have the ADIRS if the IRS is still in Nav but your ETAs will be up the Swannee, but not to worry, we can also navigate right?

So then its to DR navigation, as we have all been trained to do from our baby flying days known as PPL training.

On that night, rather than the crew figuring out what the machine wanted, should simply have disconnected it Autopilot off - Autothrust Off (TLA to the do-nut, I know)

There it is.

If it does not work, at anytime, then it does NOT work - it cannot cure itself, it cannot figure or evaluate anything. It can only calculate from many different areas, SPEED, PRESSURE, TEMPERATURE, VELOCITY, ACCELERATION, WEIGHT, BALANCE DISTANCE, TIME, THRUST and even KINETIC ENERGY, via many computors, wow! but that is all! If the inputs go wrong, from any sensor to the computor, then - ((say it with me guys, all together now)) "Garbage in Garbage out"
It, the machine, can only do so much, and that is it - it won`t lick its own wounds, it WILL NOT make itself better, nor dial 911 or 112 or 999 or contact PC world, nor will it rectify or stand back from the situation nor can it realise that anything is very wrong, it just shines startling lights and blaring noises so as to wake up the pilot from any idea that this night was going to be an easy ride. AF, your flight in question, was most unfortunate and heartbreaking, but if it is any consolation is HAS dramatically rammed it to our attention this case, this scenario, so that, if it should happen, ever again, the flight will be fine and the people on the aircraft will be fine and the families will all land safely, and not be harmed, not be hurt or afraid - because of what happened over the Atlantic - all these pasengers will be saved, again and again because of that one flight over the Atlantic and all those poor people who lost their lives.