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To: Blueflag
I'm entirely spit-balling, here.

Suppose there is a specific set of conditions, a one-in-a-million confluence of factors that causes all three flight computers to reset, or stall, or simply shut down? An attitude of X, sensor input of Y and trim condition Z that uncovers a flaw in the programming? With a fly-by-wire system, you can, and often do, have a basically unstable and unbalanced flight attitude, that the computer can maintain in a "safe" manner, but that Yeager himself couldn't handle if he was directly in control, rather than one step removed.

Flying a Champ, or a 152 or a Piper Tomahawk, you can feel when the aircraft is out of balance, because the actual pressures on the control surfaces are transmitted back to the yoke and pedals by the control cables. A balanced standard turn feels good, in a Piper. If you are ham handed, the airplane will bite back. If the Air France pilot fed in a gross control correction, however, the computer wouldn't let that aircraft obey if that input was outside parameters.

A thought: I've had a couple of flight sim joysticks go bad, and it's unsettling that it could happen to the real thing...

38 posted on 05/23/2011 8:06:34 AM PDT by jonascord (The Drug War Rapes the Constitution.)
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To: jonascord
Doesn't the adoption of fly-by-wire ,i.e. electronics controlling everything ,pretty much mean there will be situations when all the pilot can do is prepare to die? If the pilot moves a control knob but the system doesn't pass along the command then he isn't really able to influence the flight path.

Once upon a time you pressed your foot on the accelerator and that force open the throttle through a simple mechanical linkage;now your car computer reads a sensor and calculates the pedal position and sends a signal to the injector system.Lots more stuff to go wrong;that it doesn't go wrong more often is a testament to good engineering.

43 posted on 05/23/2011 8:28:05 AM PDT by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a credit card?)
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