Originally Posted by
Organfreak
No, you don't.
I'd swear you'd said something along those lines previously - I may be wrong, and happy to be corrected. I'm sorry if you're offended by anything I've said - but I don't like situations where all the cards aren't on the table.
You asked if I have a bias? Yes I do - I am biased towards lack of bias, objective criticism and dispassionate observation, nothing more. If a very experienced pilot, or anyone else for that matter, says they feel uncomfortable about the lack of tactile feedback inherent in the system - that's their call and I won't say a peep. If they say on the other hand that tactile feedback is inherently safer with no concrete evidence, then I'm likely to refute the statement. If they are unaware that the design of the system has safety benefits that the traditional yoke does not, I'm well within my rights to point that out.
The fact that Airbus and Boeing share around 50% of the market each and have done for over a decade with no statistically significant safety discrepancies between them proves conclusively that whatever the benefits and drawbacks are to their control designs, both are valid and safe ways of doing it.
Kneejerk calls to change the sidestick system's design based on one possible factor in a single incident are wrong-headed and ludicrous, and they only ever seem to go one way. No-one went round suggesting that Boeing retrofit the 757 with sidesticks because the Birgenair PNF didn't do anything when the aircraft was stalled - why should it be any different with the A330 and yokes because of AF447?