Originally Posted by
FLEXPWR
A computer (FBW in this case) will try to maintain exactly 1G all the way to the collapse of lift. A pilot cannot possibly do such a thing with any precision with conventional flight controls flying manually.
Sorry to dig up this older post after the useful info above, but I figured I'd better be the tech guy here.
What computers can do (if given precise sensors), is detect deviations from the required flightpath, sometimes before they would become perceptible to the Mark 1 homo sapiens, and react more quickly to correct those deviations. This is not due to inherent superiority to human pilots, it's simply because that is all the computers are designed to do. As Tourist points out, some pilots can fly incredibly accurately - enough to give the computers a run for their money in any case.
However, regardless of whether controlled by a human or a computer, an aircraft will always be subject to the laws of physics.
What this means is that if the forces acting on the aircraft exceed the abilities of the aircraft's control authority to hold flightpath and orientation precisely, the computers are programmed to do what pilots are trained to do, namely trade off a degree of precision to maintain stability.
Also on occasion, despite the design, testing and certification processes being among the most thorough and rigorous in history, real world scenarios - usually weather-related - will demonstrate areas that were not taken into account during the design.
Computers are there to assist pilots, not replace them - and I suspect that will remain the case for many years to come.