Violent movements can severely affect rudders

USA Today ^ | 2/10/02 | Alan Levin

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON

[chainsaw]

The FAA, the airlines and jet manufacturers quickly agreed with Friday's safety board recommendation. Just as drivers must learn nuances of different car models, pilots should be trained how to handle different jets, a source connected with Airbus said.

If those rudder peddals are so touchy, the FAA should order them out of the sky. I won't fly in one, ever.

Personally I think this is a cover up for a shoe bomber that brough the plane down. The FAA doesn't want us to know that flying is unsafe. But if what they say is true, the planes themself are unsafe. This problem doesn't exist in american made planes.

[Joe Driscoll]

I don't suppose that they used the flight data recorder information to see if too much rudder was actually requested from the cockpit.

Too much spin makes me dizzy.

[steve50]

Independent sources have found the truth. Violent tail rudder movements caused the beverage cart to roll to the rear bulkhead. On impact the coke cans exploded and blew the tail section off. No terrorists here.

[eno_]

The shelf life of this spin is as short as the time it takes for AB to design and instrument a test flight that shows this is a load of crap.

[Beenliedto]

Would some knowledgeable Captain type person tell me what "Va" is for an Airbus A300?

[EggsAckley]

Pilot error: pFFFFFFTTTTTTT!!

[Beenliedto]

yessir.

[Orangedog]

Violent movements can severely affect rudders

Terrorists with C4 filled shoes or belts can also severely affect rudders.

[mewzilla]

Violent movements can severely affect rudders...

No, really???

But I'm still going with the flying frozen Butterball hypothesis. At least until the government comes clean. But I won't hold my breath while I'm waiting.

[Postal Worker with a gun]

The Airbus is a fly-by-wire craft, the pilot by moving any of the controls is sending a signal to the flight computer which moves the appropriate controls surface. If the rudder can be moved violently enough to tear the vertical stabilizer off the aircraft, then it would appear to me that someone needs to do a little reprograming.

And yes the rudder is used in making a turn, in combination with an alieron movement. It is also used when flying in a straight line , just try to hold an aircraft on course without it, can't be done. Same as driving your car in a straight line, you don't hold the wheel still, you're constantly having to turn it one way or the other a bit to hold the car straight.

Something I've wondered about and haven't seen much of, is the age of the aircraft. An older airplane, especially one heavily used in commercial service, I would think that metal fatigue would be a factor. I realise that the aircraft is regularly inspected by regulation, I'm just curious at how thoughly the effects of stress over a prolonged period of time are measured, does the floroscope/x-ray procedure really show all the damage?

[AAABEST]

[Free the USA]

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