Meaningful displays in times of need
Thank you Tex.
You have nailed it.
I look at many of the panel displays and some of the military HUD presentations and wonder where the "de-clutter" switch is! When things go south I want to see a few things that are critical and not a lotta B.S. that doesn't contribute to recovering from a bad situation.
I was impressed that the report raised the issue of presenting AoA. That is sure to evoke many comments here. ya think?
Another thing that caught my eye was the reference to control law reversion to "2b". Good grief! 1a, 2c, 3a, and the beat goes on. No matter if you are Chuck Yeager or Sully or Gums, ya need to have a very clear reversion sequence on these FBW systems. Some of the reversion modes on the 'bus are related to max bank/pitch angles and such. But AoA limits ( aka "protections" for the masses) are not all that clear. Sully pointed out in an interview last few days that he would have liked to get another degree or two of pitch just before impact. Couldn't do it.
I am not in favor of a complete "manual" reversion aka "direct" without a clear and determined effort by the crew. I don't think that the AF447 crew would have used such an implementation, but maybe some others might if all their efforts failed to get the jet under control. In our system, we had the limits on AoA and gee to provide optimum energy in severe maneuvering. The AoA limit was not related to stall AoA. Nevertheless, full back stick provided the best normal gee and pitch rate that the jet could provide.
Back to the point that Tex pointed out.... Clear and relevant data on the presentations is essential. When not on Otto-pilot, then basic pitch and roll and such need to be primary. What in the hell was the crew doing with the flight directors in a vertical speed mode, or any other mode? If "x" degrees of pitch are in the boldface procedure, fine. But don't confuse the crew with extraneous flight director B.S.
Lastly, I have been unpleasantly surprised to learn that some jets like the 'bus fly so close to the edges of the envelope at 35 or 37K. I would expect this of some military platforms like the U-2 or SR-71 or the fabled Aurora, but not a commercial jet. Guess I was spoiled by a large margin of speed/mach and such.