john smith
just about every plane I can think of in the transport catagory has the admonishment that the pilots operating handbook assumes the pilot is an experienced and knowledgeable pilot and does not hand hold the novice.
shutting down the engines in cruise is generally recognized as contrary to maintaining altitude
scanning the instruments is generally recognized as a requirement for precise flying...
an experienced pilot knows that.
but what us experienced pilots didn't know was that using the rudder in a certain way WOULD CAUSE THE PLANE TO FALL APART.
I am of the generation that had it drilled into them BY THE FAA in its approved methods that structural failure wouldn't occur below certain speeds with full control throw.
(not unless their was previous damage to the plane)
In the modern cockpit there are some odd placcards...one I mentioned was about limiting control throw to HALF above 40,000'
many of us go to work every day in planes that have placcards saying you can't do a Catagory 2 ILS without proper training and operating equipment...now most of us still think that one is out of place...BUT ITS STILL THERE.
A placcard describes something unusual about the airplane, it is akin to the pilots operating handbook. Even a short paragraph in the airbus POH saying not to screw with the rudder would have done the trick
OF COURSE, who would buy an airplane that has a placcard or POH statement like: IF YOU SCREW WITH THE RUDDER THE PLANE WILL< REPEAT WILL< FALL APARt and KILL EVERYONE.
sorry john smith...if you knew the plane had this problem and you didn't tell all us other pilots, shame on you.
I just wish I had copies of all those books and tests I've used over the years with statements about what controls, what speeds, etc , all FAA approved.
DP Davies would have had something to say.
Oh, by the way...getting ''locked into " wake turbulence is something we train for...and it can be a bitch ...can't anyone conceive that the wake was bad enough to start a whole cycle of events that ended up showing the weakness of this plane?
I am reminded that there was a dissenting opinion from an NTSB member about the probable cause and the tail had previous , unknown or unreported damage.
makes one think
oh, and an A310 lost a piece of its rudder on a different flight...hmmmm
makes one think