I agree 100% One of the reasons I rarely fly, is the proliferation
of airbus junk into the US fleet. The fly by wire system has caused
crash after crash, and the company bears no responsibility. I'd
rather fly on an old DC 9 or DC 10 or 40 year old 737s than trust my
life to an airbus that nobody has control of.
Remember "Unsafe at any speed?" That is my humble opinion of airbus.
At 09:16 PM 2/7/2009, you wrote:
>From a friend who was a USAF test pilot and is retired Delta pilot. The
opinions aren't his but he forwarded si I guess he agrees.
The press is having a field day turning "Sully" Sullenberger into a
Lindbergh-like hero. I attended his welcoming home reception in Danville,
CA last weekend... me and the estimated 3000 other attendees. All credit is
given to him and his crew, but they will be the first to tell you, "they
just did their jobs." They did them well, but when your job entails holding
the lives of hundreds of people in your hands every time you fly, then doing
your job well is the minimum acceptable standard.
I don't, and I doubt if more than just a handful of other pilots, begrudge
Sully his day in the sun. What I am concerned about is how the real cause of
this accident is being glossed over and, on the part of Airbus Industries,
actually lied about. There are stories circulating now about how the flight
computers helped "save" the aircraft by insuring the ditching was done
properly. The stories themselves are absolute nonsense and the contention
that the flight computers ensured the proper attitude was maintained for
ditching is pure fabrication.
So what's wrong with Airbus wanting to steal a little glory for their
computerized drones? There is a good chance it was the computers that put
the aircraft into the water!
I readily admit I heartily dislike Airbus because of their design
philosophy, I will never set foot in an A-380 (the superjumbo) as I consider
it a really bad accident looking for a place to happen. I am not much
happier with the rest of them but especially the A-320 which has killed
several folks, while the engineers try to perfect software that can replace
a human brain that has a talent for flying... something that I, rather
naturally, don't believe possible.
It is well known that I love Boeings. I love to fly them. Beyond the sheer
joy of just flying the Boeing, I also believe in their design philosophy
that the last word has to be with the pilot, not the machine. No pilot, no
matter how hard he tries, can turn an A-320 upside down. It just won't do
it. Airbus believes it has designed a computer that is smarter than a pilot
(the evidence of dead bodies scattered around Mulhouse, France to the
contrary) and gives the last word to the computer. If a pilot moves the
controls so as to turn the airplane upside down, the computer will refuse.
I can turn the B777 upside down. Once I get it upside down, if I let go of
the controls, it will turn itself right-side up (smart airplane). I don't
believe I will ever be in a situation where I will need to turn the airplane
upside down, but I feel good knowing I have the control to do it. That's why
I'm not really kidding when I say: "if it ain't a Boeing; I ain't going".
What follows is an e-mail from a retired US Air Pilot who has flown the
Airbus A320 just like the one that ended up in the Hudson. It was written
in response to a friend asking him if he knew the pilot who did the
ditching. It is most illuminating and worth the read...
Dear Chuck,
I don't know him. I've seen him in the crew room and around the system but
never met him. He was former PSA and I was former Piedmont and we never had
the occasion to fly together.
The dumb shit press just won't leave this alone. Most airliner ditchings
aren't very successful since they take place on the open ocean with wind,
rough seas, swells and rescue boats are hours or days away. This one
happened in fresh smooth water, landing with the current and the rescue
boats were there picking people up while they were still climbing out of the
airplane. It also happened on a cold winter day when all the pleasure boats
were parked. Had this happened in July it would be pretty hard not to whack
a couple of little boats. Sully did a nice job but so would 95% of the
other pilots in the industry. You would have done a nice job.
Don't be surprised if the Airbus fly by wire computers didn't put a
perfectly good airplane in the water. In an older generation airplane like
the 727 or 737-300/400, the throttles are hooked to the fuel controllers on
the engine by a steel throttle cable just like a TBM or a Comanche. On the
Airbus nothing in the cockpit is real. Everything is electronic. The
throttles, rudder and brake pedals and the side stick are hooked to
rheostats who talk to a computer who talks to a electric hydraulic servo
valve which in turn hopefully moves something.
In a older generation airplane when you hit birds the engines keep screaming
or they blow up but they don't both roll back to idle simultaneously like
happened to Flt. 1549. All it would take is for bird guts to plug a
pressure sensor or knock the pitot probe off or plug it and the computers
would roll the engines back to idle thinking they were over boosting because
the computers were getting bad data. The Airbus is a real pile of shit. I
don't like riding on them. Google the Airbus A320 Crash at the Paris
Airshow in 1998. Watch the video of an airbus A320 crash into a forest
because the computers wouldn't allow a power increase following a low pass.
The computers wouldn't allow a power increase because they determined that
the airspeed was too low for the increase requested so the computers didn't
give them any. Pushing the throttles forward in a Airbus does nothing more
than request a power increase from the computer. If the computer doesn't
like all the airplane and engine parameters you don't get a power increase.
Airbus blamed the dead crew since they couldn't defend themselves. A Boeing
would still be flying.
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