Originally Posted by
roulishollandais
Your friend and his Captain had less chance and developped the dutch rolll
As I recall, the AA587 situation was not indicative of Dutch Roll as much as it was repeated sideslips in opposite directions.
Aircraft with wing-mounted engines require rudders with more control authority than those with tail-mounted engines because the adverse yaw in an engine-out scenario is much greater. To give an example, both the Air Transat and Gimli Glider incidents used a single sideslip to slow the aircraft down, and in the latter case, the Captain was concerned about what that sideslip would do structurally if it was held too long. As such, it was a last-ditch move.
Reversing a sideslip once, let alone repeatedly and in quick succession, will break any airframe eventually.
[EDIT : Additionally, if the yaw damper input was the source of the oscillations, it would have shown up in the FDR. ]
Originally Posted by
tdracer
I don't seem to recall anyone ever claiming that the 707 airframe wasn't robust.
You clearly never encountered the late 411A...
