Originally Posted by
Machinbird
I think I need to clarify that there was apparently a mental 'expectation' that Alpha Floor was going to kick in, thus even though he may have forgotten his specific autothrottle configuration, the expectation that it would operate caused confusion and a delay in actually adding power.
But disabling A/THR (and thus Alpha Floor) was central to the entirety of the attempted demonstration - there would have been no expectation of Alpha Floor operating.
Dozy, I'm going to have to tell you to check your 6 'cause you are dealing with a fighter pilot who could lay on extreme g during violent maneuvers without departing the aircraft
.
Understood, sir. But we're not talking about a fighter here, we're talking about a jetliner which, as you know, has a considerably lesser thrust to weight ratio and considerably greater inertia. The reason the EFCS makes the A320 an exceptionally nimble jetliner when handflown is because the systems are designed to take that into account and have been precisely calibrated to do so.
EDIT : In fact, the whole reason Airbus (as opposed to AF, who were responsible for this flight) used the high alpha demonstration to show off and sell the A320 was because no other airliner at the time could perform that manoeuvre precisely enough to be safe! In terms of risk, barrel-rolling the Dash 80 - while a superlative example of aircraft control - was a Sunday stroll compared to a low-speed high-AoA manoeuvre without EFCS backup.
@noske: While the Captain undoubtedly made mistakes as a result of the improvised approach, at least part of the reason the forest was "surprising" can be laid at the door of AF's operations department - they only had one copy of the airfield chart, so the chart supplied to the crew was a B&W photocopy. Unfortunately, the graphics indicating trees at the far end of the grass strip were of a light grey which did not transfer to the photocopy.