OC
Retired F4
Yes I do get it but we were defining expectation pattern differently - we were both focusing on different things. However, we are not talking about visual flying but instrument flying at night with no visual cues. What do you do then? You rely on the instruments to tell you what the aircraft is doing. In fact it's the only thing you can do - relying on any other cue is a recipe for disaster.
Well, last try. It works both ways, also in IMC and dark night and especially there. Your words, ....."You rely on the instruments to tell you what the aircraft is doing"..... and i fully agree and never ever said anything else. But flying does not stop there. A pilot will be and has to be in constant monitoring modus to compare the "what is the aircraft doing" to the "what should the aircraft be doing, which i call the expectation state. To be able to get this comparison you need the input value into the system . If you are flying manual in your 152 and you didnīt deflect any flight controls, because you didnīt want any change of the flightpath, but you observe a sudden bank, you know it is not your input, because you have your hands on the yoke and didnīt move any control surface. There must be another reason causing the input and that again might cause a diferent action from yourself.
Same if you are flying as PF, wether you made the flightcontrols change by manual input or by programming the automatics, you will know that it was your input. Will the PNF know ? He observes the change on the instruments and in a yoke aircraft observes the yoke movement in his lap, but in a non interconected SS aircraft? He has to guess.
Well, that works most of the time, because transport aircraft are and should be operated in a safe and preplanned mannor, so due to CRM it is common knowledge when something should happen in regard to flightpath or performance parameters change, because it is announced by PF, briefed before, or ordered by ATC. Therefore the expectation (we will now start descent, climb, turn..... ) shows as reality on the instruments.
When the sh**t hits the fan really bad like in AF447, the reality on the instruments is no longer nearing the expectation, the aircraft does not behave like expected (iīm in TOGA hehe..........I pulled back for quite a while....) and even both PF and PNF have now different understandig of things and the awareness, what the other guy is doing is lost. The corelation of the aircraft behaviour to the flight control inputs is lost, no valid feedback loop any more and therefore complete loss of situational awareness.
By the way, as far as i understand FBW systems it would be the same. If the system would loose the ability to recognize and measure its own input into the system, it would not be able to maintain normal control, like the dampers then counteracting the flightcontrol deflections.