Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: Wiser now
My husband is a retired Navy pilot. He tells me it takes great physical strength to wrestle an F18 in flight while doing those maneuvers.

With all due respect to your husband, would you mind asking him how a plane with fly-by-wire flight controls needs to be "wrestled" with by the human pilot and not the computer?
80 posted on 04/11/2015 9:36:28 AM PDT by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies ]


To: tanknetter

Can you spell G force?


81 posted on 04/11/2015 9:37:44 AM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies ]

To: tanknetter

My husband writes: A flight demonstration team such as the Blue Angels fly, depending on the position of the diamond formation, with full trim out of the formation. That is the left wingman flies the entire flight with full left trim and perhaps full down trim - so that if the pilot lets go of the control stick, the plane will abruptly roll to the left and downward away from the formation. Likewise the right wing would roll down and to the right. The slot pilot - the one in the back, trims full down,so that the plane will dive away from the formation. That is an extreme amount of pressure (that is force) on a single arm for the entire flight. Trim means that you are holding against the force of wind pressure on the control surface. If you are out of “trim” the pilot has to hold against the wind forces on the control surfaces for as long as the control is out of trim.


87 posted on 04/11/2015 10:22:01 AM PDT by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies ]

To: tanknetter

“With all due respect to your husband, would you mind asking him how a plane with fly-by-wire flight controls needs to be “wrestled” with by the human pilot and not the computer? “

Ask the pilot of the damaged spy plane who landed it on a Chinese controlled field. It took every ounce of his strength and endurance to get the plane on the ground.


138 posted on 04/12/2015 5:42:15 AM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson