HN39:
"I wonder if the preoccupation of some posters with the THS can be traced to a misperception of its rôle. When releasing the stick in a small airplane, the elevator is released and the airplane goes to the AoA for which it is trimmed.
That is different in a FBW airplane. Releasing the stick does not release the elevator. The elevator goes to the position that will provide 1g. As long as the elevator doesn't reach full travel, the position of the THS is irrelevant for the flight path. The main difference is that the elevator moves quickly and the THS moves slowly. 1° of THS is equivalent to 1.5° of elevator (according to Owain G)."
Forgive my ignorance, but could you explain something further? - I've long been following this story as someone with a history in software development, human machine interface design, appropriate use of technology as well as safety critical engineering in computing and telecommunications. This area is also rife with mode confusion, troubles with automation and manual configuration, as well as difficult diagnosis of problems and recovery/reversion - just look at Natwest as a recent example.
I'm confused by how you are referring to a FBW airplane here in general - FBW is a mechanism to move control surfaces without direct mechanical linkages, at least for the primary control mechanism.
The implementation of FBW could have direct control surface deflection based on control input movements - e.g Airbus direct law
On the other hand, there are a myriad of control laws that can be put in place on a FBW aeroplane that can alter/filter the control inputs to produce a control surface movement to match what the designers want to achieve - be it protections, stability etc.
As I understand it, Airbus, Boeing, Sukhoi etc have their own implementations of FBW, not all the same and not all demanding 1G responses? Do all FBW default to a 1G design philosophy? And as I could understand it, airbus and boeing differ in their control law philosophy, with one being flight path stable and the other being speed stable?
So this lumping together of all FBW aircraft as following the 1G philosophy has me confused. Could you elaborate a bit further if possible on this at all for an outsider?