Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is Missing

Air Force Brat said:

Ok kids, fasten your seatbelts, this is about to get interesting??? that fancy FCS was "glitchy" and as no one employs "flight engineers" any longer , (ignorant, but a money saver), the Captain had left his seat in order to shut down the whole FCS system,,,, media is blathering on and on, but no doubt to kill the FCS, power down, and have master reset upon reboot, in order to return the system to function? The co-pilot lost control of the aircraft apparently, stalls it, and is unable to lower the nose and allow the airspeed to build, prolly in cloud and severe turbulence? as I said this will get very interesting, as this airplane had apparently already had issues with the FCS.
Now the airplane is very capable of being flown without the FCS, but the copilot failed to maintain flying speed, it is counter intuitive, but you must release back pressure on the stick, the copilot had likely not flown the aircraft with the FCS disabled?

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PanAsian said:

Layperson questions:
How does the FCS simplify flying for the pilot under normal circumstances working properly?
Is flying without a FCS not a regular part of qualification for a pilot?
If a FCS is found to be "glitchy"/non-performing why not fly without it rather than try to fix it in-flight?

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PanAsian said:

Layperson questions:
How does the FCS simplify flying for the pilot under normal circumstances working properly?
Is flying without a FCS not a regular part of qualification for a pilot?
If a FCS is found to be "glitchy"/non-performing why not fly without it rather than try to fix it in-flight?

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PanAsian said:

Layperson questions:
How does the FCS simplify flying for the pilot under normal circumstances working properly?
Is flying without a FCS not a regular part of qualification for a pilot?
If a FCS is found to be "glitchy"/non-performing why not fly without it rather than try to fix it in-flight?

Click to expand...

Air Force Brat said:

Well an FCS is a pretty neat tool, on the Airbus, it allows you to have fly by wire and a side stick controller, you don't have to have a yoke in your lap, making getting in much simpler, it allows the airplane to be pitched to approx. 30 degrees above the horizon, and bank angle to proceed to 45-60 degrees bank angle, then you hit the limits. It is designed to keep you from breaking the airplane, and to maintain control of the aircraft even through the stick shaker, and stick pusher. and stall?, I'm not sure about the Airbus, but you can even allow the FCS to smooth the ride for you and take some of those excursions out a flight by damping out the effects of that turbulence.
I would imagine that flying without the FCS is a NO-NO, as it is onboard safety equipment, and it must be functional to fly the airplane on a commercial money making flight, if its glitchy or broke it would normally ground the airplane, so no, you would likely play with the airplane without the FCS in the simulator, possibly on a check ride, but I kind of doubt that as well??

The FCS does provide the average aviator, (face it, there are lot of those) maybe even the below average aviator to do okay, as a required safety feature of the aircraft, if it became IN-OP, it would likely require you to abort, and land at the nearest suitable airport, so as a pilot, if all efforts to "fix" the FCS had failed, you would assume manual control, (likely as an order from the Captain, to the FO, shut it all down, and hope that on re-boot function would return to nominal, and the flight could be safely conducted to its destination, and the airplane "squawked" to maintenance??? they would fix it on spot, or "ferry" it on a special maintenance with no passengers??

all this is conjecture on the brats part, so if you know different, please feel free to bring your expertice to this discussion???

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Air Force Brat said:

Well an FCS is a pretty neat tool, on the Airbus, it allows you to have fly by wire and a side stick controller, you don't have to have a yoke in your lap, making getting in much simpler, it allows the airplane to be pitched to approx. 30 degrees above the horizon, and bank angle to proceed to 45-60 degrees bank angle, then you hit the limits. It is designed to keep you from breaking the airplane, and to maintain control of the aircraft even through the stick shaker, and stick pusher. and stall?, I'm not sure about the Airbus, but you can even allow the FCS to smooth the ride for you and take some of those excursions out a flight by damping out the effects of that turbulence.
I would imagine that flying without the FCS is a NO-NO, as it is onboard safety equipment, and it must be functional to fly the airplane on a commercial money making flight, if its glitchy or broke it would normally ground the airplane, so no, you would likely play with the airplane without the FCS in the simulator, possibly on a check ride, but I kind of doubt that as well??

The FCS does provide the average aviator, (face it, there are lot of those) maybe even the below average aviator to do okay, as a required safety feature of the aircraft, if it became IN-OP, it would likely require you to abort, and land at the nearest suitable airport, so as a pilot, if all efforts to "fix" the FCS had failed, you would assume manual control, (likely as an order from the Captain, to the FO, shut it all down, and hope that on re-boot function would return to nominal, and the flight could be safely conducted to its destination, and the airplane "squawked" to maintenance??? they would fix it on spot, or "ferry" it on a special maintenance with no passengers??

all this is conjecture on the brats part, so if you know different, please feel free to bring your expertice to this discussion???

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Air Force Brat said:

any update T2? anybody, I really misread this one as to the difficulty of recovery, I was thinking 100' to 150' ft of water, they could practically reach it with a crane boom???? but they are no doubt making progress?

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MH370: Malaysia requests China to deploy more assets
BY TASNIM LOKMAN AND FAZLEENA AZIZ - 12 FEBRUARY 2015 @ 9:20 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has requested China to deploy more vessels and assets to strengthen the on-going search of MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said he had discussed the matter with China recently.

He, however, declined to reveal the number of vessels that would be dispatched to reinforce the search, adding it would take place soon.

"China received our request positively," said Liow.

The additional vessels will greatly assist in the current search where four vessels namely Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery, Fugro Support and Go Phoenix had been deployed to search for the ill-fated airplane that went down on March 8.

Liow stressed that Malaysia remain committed in the search of the missing plane with its Australian and Chinese counterparts.

He had also instructed Malaysia Airlines to give better cooperation, care and furnish the latest development of MH370 to the next of kin of passengers on board.

"We understand their feelings and we sympathise them. We are with them," he said.

Malaysia, he said, would discuss with the Australian and Chinese counterpart on their plans from now till March 8, which will mark the first year anniversary of the incident.

Liow said this after launching the national level road safety campaign at Terminal Bersepadu Selatan in Bandar Tasik Selatan.

In PETALING JAYA, a group of 15 relatives of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passengers from China has given MAS three days to response to their four demands.

The demand includes a thorough explanation on why MAS and DCA had declared flight MH370 as an accident without any evidence, adding that they disagreed with the statement.

He also requested MAS to provide them with daily updates on the search operations in the south Indian Ocean and at the same time wanted MAS to bear the cost of a private investigation the group plan to establish.

The other demand was for the national carrier to provide them financial assistance for their daily needs as their source of income had disappeared together with the plane.

Wen said more relatives of MH370 Chinese passengers were expected to arrive today and that they would stay as long as needed, most likely until their 30 day visa expires.

These group members represented a total of 70 Chinese passengers on board flight MH370.

MH370 disappeared on March 8 last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Chinese passengers accounted for about two-thirds of the 239 people who were aboard the Boeing 777.

The national carrier in statement confirmed that Ahmad Jauhari and members of the management committee met with the group representatives.

MAS said they will respond with a written reply, as requested by the family members within the next few days.

“The airline continues to regularly communicate with the families via its Family Communications and Support Centre in Beijing. However, it is in no position to provide any further clarification or technical information on the fate of MH370 other than what is already available in the public domain.

“Since the beginning of the accident, the airline has given all available information and its full commitment to the investigating authorities.

“Information provided to MAS regarding the outcome of the investigation, will be shared with the families, when it is made available,” the statement said.

The statement also said that MAS had offered caregiving assistance by Mandarin speaking staff to the next-of-kin.

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Malaysia speeds up search for missing MH370 flight

— Reuters
Kuala Lumpur, February 12

Malaysia today stepped up its search for the missing MH370 plane with all four vessels being deployed in same area in the southern Indian Ocean for the first time, even as Chinese relatives of those on board the jet protested the declaration that all passengers were dead.

“All four vessels have been deployed in the search ops, but for the first time all four in the search area at the same time/concurrently #MH370,” Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai tweeted.

Three vessels – Go Phoenix, Fugro Equator and Fugro Discovery – are equipped with towed vehicles (towfish) synthetic aperture sonar, side scan sonar and multi-beam echo sounders.

These instruments collect data which is relayed in real time to the vessels where it is processed and analysed, to determine if there is any evidence of debris on the seafloor associated with the missing plane, The Star online reported.

The Fugro Supporter is equipped with a Kongsberg HUGIN 4500 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).

Go Phoenix arrived in the search area and recommenced search operations on Tuesday.

At least 15 people gathered outside the carrier’s office today wearing white caps and red T-shirts bearing the words: “Pray for MH370.”

The relatives held placards reading: “Who can tell us what happened”, “Come back MH370” and “Today it is us, Tomorrow it could be you.”

Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre’s (JACC) latest operational report stated that search operations were hindered earlier this month due to weather conditions associated with the tropical cyclones Diamondra and Eunice.

JACC said more than 22,000 sq kilometres of the sea floor or 36 per cent of the priority search area had been searched so far.

“Assuming no other significant delays with vessels, equipment or from the weather, the current underwater search area may be largely completed around May,” the report said.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - having 239 people, including five Indians, on board - disappeared from the radar on March 8 last year while on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysia has declared the mysterious disappearance as an “accident” and said all those on board were presumed dead.

Chinese families of passengers on the missing airliner rejected the statement and demanded its withdrawal, saying that without hard evidence they don’t want to start compensation claims. PTI

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Air Force Brat said:

Well this has drug on far longer than I would have imagined, but we did have a preliminary, it does show just how difficult this is, and no doubt overwater always makes this task exponentially more difficult?

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t2contra said:

When they announced their preliminary findings, there was a cacophony of voices with one saying the pilot left his seat and another denying it happened. To avoid blunders, time and organization are what they need to arrive at a definite conclusion after analyzing all data.

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