Airbus A320 electrical failures

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
I was an instructor in the F-14 as well...I taught, among many things like tactics and weapons, carrier landings...and the pressure of night carrier landings really highlighted the variability of human performance under stressful conditions.

I've got some stories on that score...

I'll bet you do. You are a very accomplished aviator, no doubt.

 

[SEMI_287]

Originally Posted By: Astro14

It's my opinion that pilots should be exposed to stalls and spins to really understand how wings and flight works. The FAA has removed that requirement for a private license


Whoa whoa whoa wait.. the FAA took out stalls in private pilot testing??? [censored] Way back when my instructor had me doing spins when I was getting my private.

 

[Astro14]

I never got a private, but I've got an ATP with a couple of type-ratings now...Uncle Sam paid for my initial training, and we did lots, and lots, of spins in the T-34 and T-2...and all Naval Aviators know that while stall speed can vary with density altitude, load factor and gross weight, stall AOA remains the same...

My understanding of the practical standards for a private pilot now is that spins are discussed, but not required or flown (not since the 50s or something) and stalls are really more of an approach to stall...focusing primarily on recognition, not on what we used to do in the Navy...but again, I have not flown the checkride to really know the PTS...

I was genuinely surprised at the variation in understanding of aerodynamics when I was teaching at UAL...some guys really got it, and were super-sharp on the subject...some guys had never seen the Coefficient of Lift curve, or the drag curve...or L/D max and what it meant for performance, or how the thrust axis on a plane like the 737 (for you Semi) affects stall recovery (in that regard, fighters are easy...little to no thrust/pitch relationship)...I am not pointing fingers, mind you, just surprised that a guy with an ATP hadn't ever flown a plane into a deep stall, or spun one intentionally...I get that many pilots have never done aerobatics, but I figured a clear understanding of how the wings worked to make lift and the balancing of forces on the airplane was, well, universal...

 

[SEMI_287]

I figure they students should intentionally spin the place at least once. If you don't recover from a stall correctly you run the risk of spinning the plane. It was my understanding that all commercial pilots knew stall speed can vary with density altitude, load factor and gross weight and stall AOA remains the same. Dang, in ground school for private we learned stall AOA remains the same. Maybe I got really good training.

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: SEMI_287
I figure they students should intentionally spin the place at least once. If you don't recover from a stall correctly you run the risk of spinning the plane. It was my understanding that all commercial pilots knew stall speed can vary with density altitude, load factor and gross weight and stall AOA remains the same. Dang, in ground school for private we learned stall AOA remains the same. Maybe I got really good training.

Sounds like you did!

In all seriousness, a lot of guys begin to ossify when they get a job with a major...I saw it more on the long-haul, international bid...they stop learning...or forget the things they used to know...

 

[SEMI_287]

I don't understand how you can become complacent. I enjoy learning, then again everyone is different. I'm not sure if I'd like long haul. I'd be happy getting in a 757/767

 

[JimPghPA]

Astro14, I read Stick and Rudder, Fate is the Hunter, and many others. One that stand out in my mind was by a lawyer (Frank Kingston Smith) who flew (if I remember right a taildragger Cesna 140 named the Legal Eagle) and wrote of being VFR rated and find himself in a fog. He wrote that he clenched both hands into fists, and kept digging his fingernails into his palms and thinking to himself “if you touch the yoke you die, if you touch the yoke you die” and he let the airplane fly itself until it was out of fog, and he also wrote of the life expectancy of a VFR pilot in IFR conditions, something like five minutes, one minute to mess up, and four minutes to hit the ground. That book also had some interesting stories. I think the old edition of that book was called Weekend Pilot, and the more recent version is called Weekend Wings.

I will look for a copy of Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators.

When the report about AF 447 on TV talked about the Pilot tubes flash icing problem I was surprised that with all the advances in avionics the Pilot tubes were still the only means of determining the air speed of the aircraft.

There are some interesting parities about flying full scale vs RC, in that there are times when panic is the last thing you want to do. And it is interesting in how when instructing (in RC) and you see the student in a situation where you know they are panicking and also making the wrong control movement, you can remember what it was like to face that problem the first times, and get around the panic part, and provide the correct control input all while you are helping the student with the proper control input. And like the example in the Weekend Pilot book, sometimes the correct input is to not change the way the aircraft is flying, but the trick is to know when that is the correct input, and when some changes are required.