In response to my wail about "Altitude Hold", Nigel wrote:
"..........however it is still reasonable to expect a certain amount of
monitoring by the pilot."
That I think was my point. I think it is incumbent on the pilot
to increase his vigilance in this single mode. Lower levels bespeak
terrain turbulence which can come on quite swiftly. The Europa will
upset as easily as any other and has less momentum to transit the
change.
"The Europa has a flairly flat curve for a prop aircraft due to its slippery
shape but unless it is flown close to minimum drag speed there is little
risk of it falling behind the drag curve in the cruise. On the basis that
altitude hold in this application would be only used in VFR conditions in
the cruise, I think that an altitude hold feature without auto throttle
would be quite acceptable for the Europa. However you might ask if this is
truly necessary in the first place. In smooth conditions the pitch stability
is good enough to be hands off for several minutes at a time with no
altitude deviations and when VFR a couple of hundred feet of error is hardly
critical anyway."
Yes, this also supports the idea that the aircraft is better run
in Speed Control (trim) than in Altitude Hold.
holding an attitude rather than chasing a nominal cruise altitude."
Right. If you are already in rough conditions the problem is
already being solved. It's the rapid onset of downdraft or similar event to
which I meant to allude.
Ask the demo pilot at Basel in the early Airbus if he has a good
idea of what regime his aircraft is in. He pranged essentially in height
hold and wasn't aware.
Cheers, ferg
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