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Sawing the MD80 yoke!

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Actually, that type of pilot control is well known in the flight test/certification world. A pilot that does that would be classified as a "high gain" pilot, tending to be reactionary, rather than anticipatory in their control inputs. A pilot that is "high gain" has a much higher probability of encountering what is now known as "APC", but more commonly referred to as PIO.
 
Looked ok to me, like he had a crosswind on approach though. I guess the guy was overcontrolling you could say, but it looked like he got the response from the plane that he wanted. Move the control wheel a lot and back off, or move it less and wait. This is an original fly by wire plane you know, 1/8 inch cable. No hydraulics (except for stall pusher and rudder for engine failure) and the cables move control tabs, not the surfaces. I only flew it (it flew me rather) for 60 hrs but the feel in pitch was spongey and springy, in roll it was similar but the rate increased quickly once the spoilerons deployed. The -80 used to input roll and pitch like that with the AP flying an approach. That's about when I would say george has had enough and disconnect.
 
When I was at Mesaba I noticed that a lot of the new Avro captains that had just transitioned from the Saab did the same thing.
 
You could be right about the necessity to fly this way in the -80 with no hydraulics, but when I encountered this phenomenon we were flying 737's (200's). I think it was just a bad habit for this guy, because come to think of it, he had come out of C-130's and I'm sure the 130 is quite the beast.

I was just glad I never had to make any radio calls for him below 100 feet, because I sure as heck would have broken a wrist or some fingers going for the PTT.
 
Saw a pilot land a Beech like that once...then a passenger asked, "Gee, sure looked like you were workin' hard!!"

And to add one irrelevant point to the discssion, that tower controller sounded hot!
 
Looked like standard Metroliner technique to me.

NYCPilot said:
Where does the name "george" originate from when refering to the AP.

I think George is just a funny way to think of the autopilot as a "third" pilot, so to speak.

You know, Dick is the Capt, Tom is the copilot, George is the autopilot.

<shrug>
 
The end result does appear to be the same, and generally will be, unless there are any adverse handling quality issues. Unfortunately, except for the newest fighters coming off the line, none of the aircraft currently flying have really been tested for high gain pilot inputs, so it is a good way to discover something new!
 
profile said:
Unfortunately, except for the newest fighters coming off the line, none of the aircraft currently flying have really been tested for high gain pilot inputs, so it is a good way to discover something new!

Yeah, this thread initially reminded me of that video of the F-22 during one of the early flights when they lost the FCC's and it was bobbing all over the place till the pilot finally got a decent belly landing out of it. Must have hit the bottom of the oscillation juuuuussssttttt right. :) TC
 

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