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Fighting a pusher on the Q400

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JimmyKool

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Posts
83
Never flew a Q400 but if its anything like the CRJ the pusher is designed for a high-altitude stall recovery. At low altitude if you over ride it with the AP/SP disconnect switch and hold it in you can actually use the little bit of Alpha margin left to recover from a stall. Its not something trained but I did it in the sim years ago. If you actually try to recover low altitude (with the pusher activated) without pushing and holding the AP/SP button you will not recover before hitting the ground. Any Q400 pilot's chime in.....or maybe give it a shot in the sim. Please no self proclaimed performance experts....
 
Just curious, I don't fly either type, but aren't all pushers certified for 80lbs or so of force so as to be manually over-ridden if necessary?
 
Maybe I didn't pull hard enough in the ERJ sim but it was quite forceful.
 
Maybe I didn't pull hard enough in the ERJ sim but it was quite forceful.

LOL, the erj. In the sim, if you pull hard enough on the yoke, it's possible for the yoke to buckle and it will reset the sim to it's original position. We had a runway trim and I caught it it pretty late, as we were going down I pulled as hard as I could, the yoke buckled and the sim reset. I thought I just broke a 20mil sim. I guess it's a saftey measure designed so you don't actually break the yoke.
 
LOL, the erj. In the sim, if you pull hard enough on the yoke, it's possible for the yoke to buckle and it will reset the sim to it's original position. We had a runway trim and I caught it it pretty late, as we were going down I pulled as hard as I could, the yoke buckled and the sim reset. I thought I just broke a 20mil sim. I guess it's a saftey measure designed so you don't actually break the yoke.

You are totally not alone man! About sim three or four my sim instructor (GE) gave both my partner and I an ail. runaway...needless to say I reset the sim after locking my arm trying to stay level.
 
The pusher is either manually over ridden, or disengaged via switch light on the glareshield. System is automatically disabled above 200kts, less than 250ft agl or anytime a partial or total failure of the stall protection or pitot anti ice has failed.
 
I heard you can override it by first pushing the power levers forward once the stick shaker starts.
 
Not so much. As you approach a stall the pushers I'm familiar with will go full forward on the yoke. Great for High altitude but not when your Low. All the transport category a/c I've flown (only 3) have required a very small yoke movement or pitch change to avoid a stall. If your in this recovery process but the pusher trips your first instinct is to pull the yoke back to the proper recovery position. It again pushes forward, you pull back, and you have now entered a full accelerated stall that may not be recoverable with the altitude leftover. If you have been trained to disable the pusher (which I don't think anyone is) and have the almost inhuman ability to do it you could recover from an imminent stall with only soiled pants.
 

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