Mad (Flt) Scientist
Sure. Totally agree.
But I do question whether sims really are properly validated outside the flight envelope of the aircraft. Any more than aircraft are flown beyond the design envelope except by chance or error.
The bottom line for me is that with both sims and aircraft a few data points outside the fully investigated envelope don't equal complete knowledge.
But I am sure you know what I mean.
After Nick Warner and his crew were killed in the A330 at Toulouse they found a software routine in part of the autopilot control laws that had up elevator being applied to try to get to a selected height, regardless. And regardless in this context meant even it took the aircraft down to an unflyable speed. The guy who wrote that was acting in isolation. If that can happen in the world's leading organisation for developing such flight software what chance is there that sim programmers don't draw straight lines (or any other unjustified extrapolation that they find handy) when outside the envelope that they believe matters.
Sorry, rant over!
Regards
John