This is certainly not the first time an Airbus autopilot and flight computer system has attempted suicide. Any aircraft that is designed so that the engineers think they are better pilots than the pilots has a problem, and that seems to be the case with Airbus Industrie...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=axx...UhpU&refer=australia

I've been a captain on the Bus since June of this year. Airbus has some serious issues with their design philosophy. I won't go into all of them now but I'll just say that the Airbus is designed by a bunch of arrogant prick engineers who need to spend a bit more time in the saddle and a lot less time in the books.

Yep. I'm glad Im not you. Everytime I climb onto one of those things, I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

This blind reliance on 'puters is just plain stupid. We all know they crash, and not that infrequently. When one is talking about a plane-load of lives, it could be regarded as criminally irresponsible. This kind of stuff really gets my back up. I wouldn't get on board one of those things if it was sitting on the ramp. As an ex aerospace designer, this kinda crap just makes me furious.

RG

The Airbus also has positives. For instance, in severe windshear conditions on take off and approach, no other aircraft is safer - it can be flown to within a bees dick of the stall making a safe recovery from windshear much more likely.

Airbus have tried to design a foolproof aircraft that cater for the lowest common denominator in terms of the crews that fly them. A bit like the car manufacturers with antiskid, traction control & vehicle stability systems....incorporated to keep those with very average skills out of trouble.

Each aircraft has its bugs - there are plenty on the Boeings, like Capton wiring, centre wing fuel tank pump problems to name a few.

And as for the 787 - thats going to be interesting to see how that goes with its carbonfibre fuselage WHEN it eventually flies - and it too will be flown by computers...

Yeah, and God help us. The latest with Qantas in Aust was the stick shaker going off turning on final or such. Seems the drivers forgot to turn the auto throttles on or something.

It was bad enough in the old days with airline captains shutting down the wrong engine etc., but these computer things have a history of acting up leaving the pilots up the creek with out the paddle so to speak.

Make the lazy sods fly hands on watching old style dial gauges I reckon.

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Yeah, and God help us. The latest with Qantas in Aust was the stick shaker going off turning on final or such. Seems the drivers forgot to turn the auto throttles on or something.

It was bad enough in the old days with airline captains shutting down the wrong engine etc., but these computer things have a history of acting up leaving the pilots up the creek with out the paddle so to speak.

Make the lazy sods fly hands on watching old style dial gauges I reckon.

My favorite Airbus story:
British Airways comes in for a landing, centers up on final - and the aircraft decides to do a 'go around.' Pilot informs tower that the "aircraft is going around!" Tower responds with "state your intentions!" - and the pilot replies, "We're going with it!"

And the DC-8 was the last 'honest' airplane to fly!

I will be one of the first pilots to criticize what I term "runaway technology". One example of this is the fact that GPS navs are so accurate aircraft crossing the atlantic on the North Atlantic Track System (NATS) are literally on top of one another, seperated by 1000 feet vertically.
We had a 6 year run of "0" USA commercial aircraft fatalities. From 9/11/2001 to The Comair crash in Kentucky. That was the end of the run, and that was at least partly due to poor technical airport data, not airlplane specific stuff. So, in my mind that tells me that the stuff is doing its job.
All the computers and engineers money can buy will never replace solid flying skills though. I had a simulator partner who stalled a 777 during a training period because he was relying on the autothrottles that weren't armed. Scared the crap out of all of us.
I really like predictive windshear, controller- pilot digital data link and cockpit cabin video.

quote:

We had a 6 year run of "0" USA commercial aircraft fatalities. From 9/11/2001 to The Comair crash in Kentucky. That was the end of the run, and that was at least partly due to poor technical airport data, not airlplane specific stuff.

I thought they took of on the Wrong Runway?

Yep, they did. Prior to takeoff there was a brief discussion in the cockpit concerning signage at an intersection of the 2 runways and the taxiway that connected them.