[gnaffle]

Yes, maybe a combination of shock, confusion or distrust in the instruments was a factor. It will be interesting to see what the human factors group of the investigation comes up with.

I'm sure that the flight training will also be investigated, there has been concerns that improper stall recovery technique is being taught by some instructors: http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/012010.pdf

(And of course, in planes that are not certified for stalls, you can't really practice full stalls and have to train on approach to stalls instead.)

[jrockway]

(And of course, in planes that are not certified for stalls, you can't really practice full stalls and have to train on approach to stalls instead.)

Of course, very little airliner training happens outside a simulator, which can you can stall without damaging anything.

[lutorm]

On the other hand, it's not obvious to me that the simulator would behave correctly in this regime either. Having the simulator work correctly in a deep stall is probably not high on their list of priorities. It's possible that this was even the first time ever that an Airbus had been stalled like that, so maybe no one actually knew how it would behave.

[jrockway]

Yes, that's possible. I remember reading an article by the author of X-Plane about how stalls are mostly simulated by trying it in the real aircraft and programming something similar, because the airflow dynamics are too difficult to model in real time. (Incidentally, the Cessna 172 is nearly impossible to stall in X-Plane, but somewhat easier to stall in FlightGear. I wonder who's closer :)

[gnaffle]

By easier, do you mean that you have to exert more back pressure to have it stall, or that it quickly gets out of the stall? I think it can vary a bit depending on weight and the exact model you're flying. In some models it's difficult to maintain the stall because the nose will just drop.

You should get an introductory flight lesson, then you could ask do have a stall demonstrated and see which flight simulator matches best. There are a lot of signs you don't get outside a full motion simulator, such as wing buffeting and "mushy" controls.

[crikli]

Yup, intentional stalls give plenty of warning in a trainer.

It's the stalls caused by uncoordinated flight during a steep bank or snap spins caused by exceeding critical angle of attack, regardless of speed, that will kill you. The first is easy to get into in a trainer like a C172. The second won't happen (safely) unless you're in something with a bit less lift and more power, like a Pitts.

[jrockway]

I've been meaning to start taking lessons so I can get a private pilot's license, but it's hard when you live in downtown Chicago without a car. There are a couple schools at MDW, but you'll eventually have to drive to the suburbs as MDW does not let students fly solo out of the airport. Probably for good reason :)

[Florin_Andrei]

> Of course, very little airliner training happens outside a simulator, which can you can stall without damaging anything.

Maybe they should apply mild taser shocks to pilots stalling in the simulator. I'm not being snarky. There should be some kind of physical consequence of making bad mistakes, otherwise it's too disconnected from reality.

[jarek]

The result of that would be pilots doing everything in their power to avoid entering stall and thus learning less about behaviour while in stall and exiting stall. I'm not sure that's a desirable outcome. Sometimes you have to fail to learn.

[Florin_Andrei]

No, what I mean is - tase them when they "crash" in the simulator, not when they stall.

A simulator "crash" is not nearly significant enough to their reptilian brain. Their neocortex may register it as a failure, but for the reptilian brain is just a big nothing.

Adding some physical jolt may drive the lesson deeper in their psyche, that a crash really is a bad thing.

[gnaffle]

I don't think accidents happen because pilots don't realize crashing is a bad thing, they happen because pilots do the wrong thing. You probably want pilots that have trained on dealing with lots of different failures and can do the right thing as correctly and quickly as possible, not pilots who get stressed and upset recalling the electric shocks they got during training.

[ansible]

Well, you can turn off the shocks for training days when they are practising stall recovery, but leave on the shocks for regular situations.