How safe is (airbus) fly by wire? Airbus A330/340 and A320 family emergency AD

[Chris Scott]

BOAC,
Have a feeling I may come unstuck on this one! On the face of it, reminiscent of TyroPicard's VFW 614 jet, but with the prop's slipstream improving elevator authority. Unlike the prop-driven types most of us wrinklies started our careers on, this pusher-prop will have negligible effect on wing lift, so back to the VFW 614 situation again. Is that why the thrust line looks to have an up-vector? Bottom-line is: I reckon you'd have to pull fairly hard initially. (You have control!)

Bengerman,
Sorry you feel like that, but I'm not expecting to devote much more of my retirement to this contentious argument, either. (And I much admire others who have to compose their thoughts in a foreign tongue.) Why does it have to be so polarised? Re non-driven thrust levers and non-interconnected sidesticks, if you have seen my posts on this and other threads, you will see that I have opposed them in principle since the 1980s.

I haven't flown the B727, but your comment surprises me. The DC10s I flew only had a third of their thrust mounted on the tail: the rest was under-slung. I seem to recall that, due to its high thrust-line (unlike the L-1011), a single-engine G/A using that centre engine was quite interesting.

Jonty,
Thanks for endorsing my point. The G/A accident I had in mind was either an A300-600 or an A310 in the Far East: conventional controls and (as some readers may not know) very similar configuration to the B757/767. I remember go-arounds in the A310 only too well.