PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AMR 587 Airbus Crash (merged)
View Single Post
Old 3rd Aug 2003, 03:39
  #243 (permalink)  
Dagger Dirk
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Bechuanaland
Posts: 183
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
What's Confusing You?

DownIn3Green

It seems pretty clear (to me) that Overtalk is referring to the possibility that accumulated water trapped in the static lines could induce the air data computer to feed faulty airspeed signals to either/both the yaw damper and rudder limiter via the Flight Augmentation Computer. Water in the static lines would dampen the ADC inputs considerably and create the potential for an out-of-phase condition to develop (particularly following on from the yaw caused by the externally applied gross stimulus of a wake encounter).. Closed loop feedback is the most likely cause of this accident - despite all the obfuscation by Airbus, the FAA and NTSB about pilot inputs. Overtalk is admitting that there may have been belated pilot intervention attempts that may not have helped (and may indeed have exacerbated the condition). That is quite different to a pilot-input inspired event.

Unlike roll and pitch, the problem in the yaw circuit is that the very large vertical fin is going to provide a powerful stabilizing force - but that can be subverted by mis-timed FAC signals to the rudder (as caused by faulty feeds from the ADC). In my view the theory is credible and might explain the A300's tail-wagging proclivities. For AA587 it was likely to have been a case of an unfortunate conjunction of a wake encounter, water in the static lines and a PF who was hand-flying and tried his best to calm the beast that was suddenly unleashed by the wake encounter.
Dagger Dirk is offline