Originally Posted by
METO Guido
Equipped to comment from but one guy's perspective. Can only to describe the analysis attached as…comprehensively excellent. Could go on to detail circumstances (LCA/ASAP board/Pt.142/Pt.119) where FLCH & A/T interface may be in conflict with stabilized visual approaches but, it's all there really.
Returning to AF447 for a moment. Don't personally regard the known human factors as, a conclusion. Like so many others, just seek to better understand how what might have been for one crew, a readily solved anomaly yet for another, 7 mile dive into ghastly statistical record.
Agree. It is one thing to solve problems from a system level, and quite another for those of us on the "sharp end" to have to deal with a poorly designed system. I have the "luxury" of working both ends of this. I have thought much about this and in the end, the reason others have survived comes down to a few issues:
1. Unfortunately, luck is involved to a certain extent. Some events just are not the same duration or involve quite the same set of circumstances. Like microburst events, there is just some random probability involved.;
2. In the cases where crews flew through without significant issue, in every case I am aware of there was at least one person at the controls with "legacy" experience, experience that came with years of flying prior to the introduction of augmented control systems and RVSM rules, where pilots still had to really hand fly a real airplane at altitude. No amount of hand-flying a FBW airplane will prepare a pilot for the handling qualities at higher altitudes without degrading it into direct law. It is just not the same animal.