Originally Posted by MachinBird
Originally Posted by Hazelnuts
I don't think that is a correct description of how the system functions. A sidestick input commands a change of flight path.
Hazlenuts, I think you mis-understood the intent of my post. It was a hypothetical what would have happened if the aircraft dropped to Direct Law instead of switching to Alt2B? My conclusion was that the aircraft would not have been easier to fly, but that the likelihood of disaster was significantly less.
PF would still have rocked his wings, and he would have pulled his nose up as he did before, but as the aircraft slowed, he would have had to pull much harder to hold the nose attitude, or he would have had to trim.
But trimming nose up means intentionally selecting a lower speed. That would have required a conscious decision on his part. The aircraft would have actually told him it was getting slow by the amount of nose up effort required to hold the nose up.
The aircraft crashed because PF did not understand what was going on, not because it was difficult to fly. Autotrim masked the loss of speed.
Using a lowest common denominator design strategy, dropping to Direct Law instead of Alt 2 B would actually improve the pilots understanding of where the aircraft was in its flight envelope. I'm betting he would not have rolled in more nose up trim if it was under his direct control.
MachinBird, I almost agree. I totally agree with the intent of your post and you did understand my earlier post. If we're talking about any other transport category in my knowledge, their speed stability would have required more elevator force to hold the nose up. We both understand what that means I think. The Bus, however, offers no control feedback, therefore the pilot would never know how much effort was required to maintain the stall.
That is my gripe with the Bus, not the fact that it auto trims, or how it auto trims, but that it isn't speed stable in trim. Multiple tens of thousands of pilots around the world fly multiple tens of thousands of airplanes and the vast, vast majority of those airplanes are speed stable.
What I find surprising is that the only crew that couldn't deal with the Airbus and UAS was a Bus only crew. You might have thought that some of us old steam gauge cable control dinosaur pilots with more time trimming on short final than some ab initio pilot would have been the ones to mess it up. Cheers.