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Old 22nd Oct 2012, 21:13
  #109 (permalink)  
mm43
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
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Age: 81
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Fast 05 - bolding mine.
With standard flight control the aircraft may move significantly without flight control input and also a significant input of the flight control may have no apparent effect on the aircraft (i.e. when countering the flaps or engine change).
With the A320 Fly-by-Wire there is a consistant relationship between the aircraft movement and stick input at least in the normal flight envelope below minimized turbulence effect : no input, no motion change. Therefore, the natural detection of roll or load change gives an unmistakable warning that the other pilot (or the AP) is activating the flight control and the stick linkage is not necessary.
Then there are the HF effects that can skewer any perfected flight control system, that in the 447 case comprised a high level of abnormal noise, which was apparently ignored - with the exception of the SW after the aircraft had left the normal flight envelope.

The expectation of : control input equates to motion change, appears to have been missed in the case of longitudinal inputs. Likewise, assimilation of the "glass interface" data expected in a normal scan, didn't provide an answer. Similarly, the differences between pre-stall and post-stall lateral control, and the motion effects associated, didn't rattle any brain cells. The PF's sensed "over-speed" situation would, if it was true, have provided a good number of barrel rolls, based on his lateral inputs.

Simulated feedback derived from standard inertial sources wouldn't have provided any additional tactile information once the airspeed had gone down the drain. Would have "stick shaker / ND inputs" induced into the SS provided further tactile feedback? In the 447 situation, I believe it wouldn't have changed anything, as the Microsoft "blue screen" effect accompanied by a "memory dump" seems to have claimed the day.

If AF447 is consigned as a "Black Swan" event, the major consideration with regard to safety needs to be focused on the Human Factors that contributed to the outcome. To do that, you start at the beginning with pilot selection, etc....
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