Originally Posted by
Clandestino
For the umpteenth time: it is
not! It holds the flightpath! Not
pitch or
G! It's the place in manuals where "needs to know" meets "unable to understand". If Aırbus wrote "maintains vertical flightpath" instead of "maintains 1G corrected for pitch up to 33 deg bank", already high number of confused manual readers would increase even more.
That is no excuse for writing an ops or a training manual that doesn't educate as well as train. You have to know how your system works to operate it professionally.
So why did Airbus made the system that is so difficult to describe? To make it simple to operate!
Actually, your sentence makes sense if you omit "that is so difficult to describe." As above, there is no excuse for not taking the effort to describe it clearly to the operators. You are carrying the trusting public in your aluminum tubes with wings.
AoA limits? There is cue on speed display, aural stall warning and strong natural pre-stall buffet.
Since we are discussing AF 447, we may wish to remember that in this case airspeed indications had gone on holiday thanks to a voting procedure. (And some ice in the tubes). Granted, that eventually resolved itself but by then the crew were behind the aircraft.
HTBJ chapter on stick pusher provides enlightenment on how aeroplanes behaving badly were certified way before Airbus.
A point worth remembering.
Meanwhile, there was another sad case of holding the controls fully up till ground impact in Mali.
Lesson: there is no collective experience, there is no collective memory. A given crew only has its experience, memory, professional education, and professional training.
It is also worth noting that out of 36 cases of unreliable airspeeds on 330/340 that preceeded AF447 and were listed in interim 2, 6 happened to AF crews. No damage, no injuries.
Indeed worth noting.
It might explain initial climb but not why then the level was severely busted or why climb even after PNF prompts to go down, thence BS.
So what does explain that, in your humble opinion?
FAA disagrees. Maybe your congressman can do something about it?
Not if he knows what's good for his wallet.
