[Nesti (Mark)]

I feel the REAL issue here is fear. In that throughout history there have always been aviation accidents. The issue with fly by wire is that we are effectively handing over our lives to something we have little direct experience with.

We all steer our vehicles using direct mechanical devices which more often than not, employ hydraulic assistance. This provides us with two things, 1. That we can have direct feedback to the road surface and, 2. That we subconsciously think of metal parts as a REAL physical material.

With fly by wire, our psyche is affected, in that we replace our direct feedback with the aircraft with simulated feedback, and when presented with the concept that it is electrical power and signals which are relaying pilot output to control device input (Hydraulic actuator etc), then we have essentially taken the directness out of the system and placed it in the hands of James Clerk Maxwell...people instinctively don't like this...I'm one of them.

I do realise that we have had force gradients, stick shakers and other artificial feedback mechanisms in aircraft for years (particularly with heavy hydraulic reliant aircraft), but in some measure the pilot can always derive a lot of information and orientation from the FEEL of the controls...a side-stick, to me, is something for a PS2 or at best, something that you can use while sitting in a Martin Baker panic chair, not a commercial airliner.

Call me old fashioned, but I've worked and conducted post-maintenance test flying (engine, airframes and electrics) for years, and there's no way a fly by wire system is as forgiving as a properly maintained mechanical system. And that's the REAL problem with fly by wire; when it's running well, it's great, but when it bites, it really bites...it isn't as forgiving as classical systems.

The last real difference is that when the proverbial hits the fan, a pilot flying an aircraft with a predominately classical system reverts automatically to flying the aircraft hands-on as a priority; he becomes the flyer of the plane. With fly by wire, it seems that pilots attention gets diverted toward fault finding; he becomes the Certified Microsoft Systems Engineer. He does this because when a classical system fails, the pilot automatically knows that-that system, be it a cable, hydraulic system, electric worm thread etc, is cactus, whereas the pilot of the fly by wire aircraft has to determine if it is mechanical, or fly by wire related...and are other systems being affected???

I say put Sir Isaac Newton back in the driver's seat.

Cheers
Mark