AR, re, "I’m describing the ability to not react out of panic, but rather function as you have been trained, choosing what your reaction will be – and I’ve described this in pilots as being somethink like …'scan – mentally process – feel – mentally process – scan – mentally choose a response – physically respond – scan – mentally process – feel the motion – visually confirm the motion cue – mentally process – etc.' "
Quite well put, really.
Words describing this process such as "recursive" are for me, helpful but essentially it's the same thing - constant re-evaluation of 'things' on a second-by-second basis, with calm. There really aren't very many issues/abnormals/emergencies in transport aircraft that one must instantly react/respond to at a "basal" level, so to speak.
The best thing to do in AF447's case was as you describe and then "do nothing", (which meant just keep everything the way it was because neither the airplane nor the engines care about a loss of speed indication; the energy is still there, the stable cruise flight at one altitude is there, so "do nothing" - monitor, wait, call for ECAM, etc, maintain discipline).
Likely the UAS event they experienced would have been over in less than two minutes and they'd have had a serviceable indication and as others have pointed out, a log-book entry.
Further to the point, this is what training is all about - to handle the so-called "startle factor", (I can't believe that our industry actually believes in such nonsense, but giving the notion a broad and generous interpretation, perhaps that's what automation and not staying in the books engenders in pilots who may not know their airplane sufficiently well?)
Last edited by Jetdriver; 6th Oct 2013 at 22:05.