Originally Posted by
DigDug
Any past laments about false feel of hydraulics or the loss of the wind in your face are a different thing altogether from the outright replacement of the human pilot in the direct control of the control surfaces and the flight path. Those guys still needed to adapt and produce the skill to keep the aircraft right side up and on speed, the normal condition for the bus pilot requires no such thing - even with the autopilot OFF.
You don't have direct connection to the flight controls on most airplanes as your input goes through a feel sensor and that measures the response to the flight control surfaces. I think one of us has a misunderstanding of current flight control systems. Even the old T-38 I flew decades ago did not have direct input to the flight controls. And you didn't really want to spend an afternoon in the 727 or 737 in manual reversion and there IS no manual reversion on the 757/767. Lose hyd and you're toast.
IF, however, you want to argue envelop protection, that is another matter. Boeing argues one way and Airbus argues the other way but one fact remains.. and that there has not been to my knowledge an incident/accident where the envelop protection inhibited the input of the pilot. The Mulhouse accident is the point where a lot of people don't know or understand what happened and had it been a Boeing, it STILL WOULD HAVE CRASHED had the pilots done the same things except the Boeing possibly would have stalled into the trees.