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Old 8th Jan 2016, 14:25
  #35 (permalink)  
BEagle
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
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AoA triggered stick shaker and stick pushers have been around for years!

The VC10 had such a system (due to ARB issues concerning 'super stall'), which was quite positive in action. During air tests of the VC10K, we took it to the 'stick shaker' stage, but the VC10C could be taken to the stick pusher if an additional AoA display was fitted. Intentional stalling (i.e. at the stick pusher) was prohibited in the VC10K variant though.

There was also a 'lift rate' modifier which ensured that the stick shaker would be triggered at the correct AoA for configuration and would also operate sooner if it detected a rapid change in AoA...

It was quite common to get the odd rattle of stick shaker during flapless or slatless approaches. One reason being that, in one VC10K2, the lift rate modifier wiring was found never to have been connected and was tucked behind the soundproofing....

But on another occasion, I was flying a nice steady flapless approach at exactly the correct speed when suddenly the klazons went off and the stick pusher operated ! It was certainly possible to override the system, so having done so we went around, dumped the stall protection system (it was common to do so when refuelling off another tanker, due to disturbed airflow over the AoA probes) and landed off a normal approach.

The reason for the spurious operation was that the aircraft had been sitting in the grubby, dusty environment of the operational theatre and hadn't had a wash for ages. So the AoA probes had probably been binding until a gust on my approach dislodged one, which then went from the cruise value to the actual value, fooling the stall protection system into premature operation by spurious detection of a rapid AoA change....

So no thank you - please do not consider an autopilot with an 'auto stall avoidance' device. Airbus includes excellent envelope protection features in the autoflight system, but if the pilots don't understand them or take the totally wrong action for unreliable airspeed indication, all the clever robots in the world won't guarantee protection.
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