Originally Posted by
Shaggy1970
Here you go! Number six is what people are concerned with!
Longitudinal Stability Augmentation System (LSAS)
LSAS provides:
1) Pitch Attitude Hold and Automatic Pitch Trim – With no force
on the control column, and bank angle less than 30 degrees,
LSAS holds the current pitch attitude. LSAS holds this attitude
by deflecting the elevators as much as 5 degrees. The
horizontal stabilizer is automatically adjusted to relieve the
sustained elevator deflection and maintain a full 5 degree
elevator authority.
2) Pitch Attitude Limiting – LSAS maintains pitch attitude to less
than 10 degrees of dive, or less than 30 degrees of climb.
3) Pitch Rate Damping – Increases the apparent static stability to
reduce the chance of over-control in pitch. It is active
throughout the flight envelope. 100% of max damping is
available above 20,000ft, decreasing linearly to 30% below
16,500 ft.
4) Speed Protection – If the autopilot is not engaged and the
autothrottle is not available (or able to maintain a safe speed),
LSAS Speed Limiting will engage to provide overspeed or
stall protection. LSAS overspeed protection is accomplished
by changing pitch. LSAS does not provide flap, slat or gear
overspeed protection.
5) Stall Protection – At 75-85 pct of the angle of attack required
to activate the stick shaker, the LSAS stall protection engages.
LSAS reduces pitch until the AOA is sufficiently reduced.
6) Pitch Attitude Protection and Positive Nose Lowering - During
takeoff rotation, LSAS provides Pitch Attitude Protection
(PAP) to reduce the possibility of a tail strike. During landing,
after spoiler deployment is commanded, LSAS initiates
Positive Nose Lowering (PNL) to assist in transitioning the
nose wheel to the runway after main gear touchdown.
LSAS is off when:
1) The autopilot is engaged
2) Below 100 ft RA, except active for pitch attitude protection
during takeoff and positive nose lowering during landing.
3) Bank angle exceeds 30 degrees
4) During manual trim operation
5) Pilot can override LSAS if, when below 1500 ft., more than
appx 2 lbs. of pressure is applied to the control column; or,
when 10-15 lbs of force is applied while PAP or PNL is active.
The pilot may counteract the LSAS overspeed or stall protection
by using enough manual force on the control column (appx 50
lbs) to defeat the LSAS inputs.
LSAS Switches
FAIL (illuminated)
-Control channel has failed, and has shut off
OFF (illuminated)
-Respective LSAS switch has been pressed, and the
corresponding control channel has been turned off.
Talked to a bud last night and he has an interesting twist on this. If you watch the video on the "initial" nose-gear touchdown, take notice how utterly violent that nose touches down. In fact, in reports from witnesses at the airport it blew "both" nose gear tires from the aircraft. By bud surmises this violent touchdown may have knocked both pilots unconscious, therefore you see the jet recoil back into the air, most likely due to the recoiling of the nose-gear strut on what was most likely a very lightly loaded MD-11 in a very strong headwind. With no conscious pilots to add power and administer a go-around, the jet continued a mini-phugoid and simply pitched back over to 4-6 degrees, impacting the runway again in tragic form.
Think about Dale Earnhardt at Daytona. It took very little G-loads but delivered in the right fashion to kill one of the greatest Nascar drivers ever. The initial nose-gear touchdown was nothing short of violent. I think my bud may have a point, and if the FDR shows no pilot input after they became airborne again, I'll be he's right.