[WalterBright]

My dad flew for 20 years in the Air Force. He more than once defied procedure that would have put him in jeopardy on a flight. He told me he was not going to die because of a bureaucratic rule written by someone whose ass was safely behind a desk.

One was when formation flying, pilots were to keep both eyes on the lead, and mimic his flying. This led to several crashes where the whole team died because the lead flew into the ground. He said he'd be damned if he was going to do that, and kept one eye on the lead and the other eye on the ground.

He spent some years as a flight instructor, who sits in the back seat. There were incidents where the student would panic and crash the airplane. That wasn't going to happen to my dad, either, and he kept a length of iron pipe at hand to beat the student into letting go of the controls.

(That Airbus that crashed into the Atlantic a few years ago was an example of the junior pilot panicking and holding the stick back till it crashed.)

[GekkePrutser]

Yes about the airbus but the problem there is also that there is no feedback, so the second pilot can't feel what the other one is doing.

But in that case (I think you mean AF447) there was a lot more going on with confusing warning indications. They did however fly a perfectly functioning aircraft straight into the sea.

[nate_meurer]

It wasn't quite perfectly functioning. The pitot tubes had frozen, depriving the crew of reliable airspeed information.

[nopzor]

you’re correct that the pitot tubes had malfunctioned, and this was a significant factor.

but the gp point has validity.

if the controls were physically linked, like they are in boeing aircraft, the pilots who were putting in opposing inputs would have realized what was going on pretty quickly.

[GekkePrutser]

That's true, I just meant that there was nothing technical stopping it from remaining airborne. But I should have said that.

[WalterBright]

Yeah, that one. I was too lazy to look it up. Thanks!

[azth]

> That wasn't going to happen to my dad, either, and he kept a length of iron pipe at hand to beat the student into letting go of the controls.

That's awesome haha. Hope your dad is well.

[p_l]

The Instructor's Stick is well regarded tradition all over the world.

One problem AF447 faced was that the closest thing to instructor who could whack the panicking pilot returned to cabin too late to fix it...

[WalterBright]

> Hope your dad is well

He is two months older than Betty White! Sadly, he passed at 93. I sorely miss him. But thanks for the kind thoughts, I appreciate them.