Indonesia Air Asia flight QZ 8501 loses contact with ATC

[jb747]

Out of interest, with two seater military jets which use joysticks, are they mechanically linked in all/most/few cases? What about the thrust levers? I could imagine this being much more confusing as with tandem seating you have no chance of seeing what the other pilot is doing to the controls?

The military mechanically link the controls and throttles. Even the sidestick equipped C17 has some form of linkage.

Or does the problem more come down to the Airbus ability to "average the inputs" rather than just have 1 person in charge with a big toggle switch in centre of the dashboard to select which person is in control?

The decision to average inputs could be considered a bit suspect, though it does simultaneously indicate the dual inputs. Trouble is that warning is lost in cases like this. There is an override button on both sidesticks, but it's not normally pushed. Perhaps the option to select a default sidestick might be useful, though it's just a bandaid. The lack of feedback is the issue, but it would be worse than "diesel gate" to fix.

The undriven thrust levers save the weight of a thrust lever servo system, and I expect that was the original justification for the entire idea.

 

[JohnK]

Thanks again. My aversion to fast growing airlines is re-inforced by all of this.

Good point.

I didn't want to fly AirAsia again after their past few incidents but found myself in a slight tangle recently. Left booking flights quite late and in the end flew Thai AirAsia CNX-MFM as other alternatives were too expensive. They are a true LCC. Seats feel cramped, I am not that tall but my shins hurt when feet are stretched out in front. And that was row 2. Hate component pricing so paid for flexible tickets in the end to include everything. Meal is nothing like what was advertised and overpriced.

Didn't feel scared at any point in time but I will try to make sure I plan better in future.

 

[jb747]

Didn't feel scared at any point in time .......

I think I see a flaw in that logic.