PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AF 447 Thread No. 12
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Old 26th Jan 2015, 06:14
  #945 (permalink)  
EMIT
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: The Netherlands
Age: 67
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The questions about bank angle 67 degrees and g limit +2.5 appear to me to imply that people forget how airplanes are maneuvred.
Aircraft are maneuvred with LIFT, i.e. in the pitch direction.
If you want to turn, you roll to point the lift vector in the direction that you want to turn and then you pull to increase lift. If you dissect the lift vector you will find that in a horizontal turn, the vertical component of lift just counters the weight of the aircraft, and the horizontal component of the lift does the turning bit.
Now, if you are banked 67 degrees in your Airbus, or Boeing, which also has a g-limit of +2.5 and you want to climb, then the most efficient way is NOT to increase your pull on the stick, but to roll towards level, so that the lift will point more up.

Sometimes, you see referrals to high speed stalls - and then replies along the line of, well then just fly slower, that ends the "high speed stall" or an accelerated stall, which happens in a turn, etcetera.
Please note that stalling has to do with angle of attack (jeez, what an aggressive term by the way, couldn't we change that into a politically more palatable expression?). What is usually described on the forum here, as a stall, is the stall in level flight, at 1 g, which indeed will happen at the minimum speed, or stall speed. However, it is possible to increase angle of attack by just pulling back on the stick at any airspeed and in any attitude. Likewise, it is possible to be NOT STALLED at any airspeed, in any attitude by just unloading, pushing the stick untill you are weightless in your seat - the airplane then also needs no lift.
This latest sentence may attract engineering wonders that will figure out super efficient flight, no lift needed, so less engine thrust needed, etcetera, but of course, no lift means that gravity will succeed in pulling the aircraft closer towards earth, so it can only be used temporarily, e.g. to get out of a stalled situation - regaining level flight is than an item lower on the priority list.

Questions about getting the Airbus into Direct Law by pilot action - if needed, push 2 buttons. There are 3 air data computers (ADR, air data reference unit) - switch OFF 2 of them and the system will fall back to direct law. If attention was payed during type qualification, procedure should sound familiar.
Concerns about upsets - when outside normal pitch and roll limits, then system reverts to abnormal attitude law - in that law, the flight controls will act "like in a normal aircraft again", no "interference by unwilling computers anymore".
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