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TFA doesn't seem to go far enough. Does anyone know the particulars of the simulator experiences that inspired these comments? Was the simulator that inspired t

TFA doesn't seem to go far enough. Does anyone know the particulars of the simulator experiences that inspired these comments? Was the simulator that inspired those comments an accurate reflection of the real plane? Was it the same simulator that was used by airline pilots? If not, which was more accurate? Can the programmers of the simulator be made available to investigators? If the point is just to stir the pot a bit more, that's fine I guess. Keep up the pressure; everyone at Boeing and FAA who took part in pushing this through owe a lot of suffering to the families of their victims. I'm just not sure that someone who interacted with a computer simulation is going to be the best-informed Congressional witness. That is, if the goal is really to find out exactly what happened.

largbae 7y ago
The simulators themselves are generally quite thorough, wherever feasible they run the same software as the plane on simulated instrument input (which can also be broken for simulation purposes). Newer planes are more and more often fly-by-wire with shakers and motors to provide the "feel" of the controls. This only makes the simulators more realistic. Note that the engineer wasn't jumping to the conclusion that there was a simulator bug, and trusted that the simulation represented the real handling (as was borne out in reality). Here is a 747 simulator on eBay to give you an idea of what's in the box: https://www.ebay.com/i/293183009463 https://www.ebay.com/i/293183009463
- jessaustin 7y ago
  In theory simulators are very accurate. In reality they might be. I'd expect the simulator for an existing airframe with decades of service (like your 747-400) to be more accurate than that for a new airframe. The primary purpose of simulators is training, not testing. While both the airframe and its simulator are under development, substantial inaccuracies wouldn't surprise me. TFA quotes this dude's attorney thus: "The simulator was not reading right and had to be fixed to fly like the real plane." Is that true? Is that ass-covering? How are we going to find out from this dude's testimony? Other evidence must be examined. TFA says this pilot had a hard time with the simulator. We also know that these planes crash very often. We can't just put those two propositions together to prove that the simulator predicted these planes would often crash in this particular way.

largbae 7y ago

The simulators themselves are generally quite thorough, wherever feasible they run the same software as the plane on simulated instrument input (which can also be broken for simulation purposes). Newer planes are more and more often fly-by-wire with shakers and motors to provide the "feel" of the controls. This only makes the simulators more realistic. Note that the engineer wasn't jumping to the conclusion that there was a simulator bug, and trusted that the simulation represented the real handling (as was borne out in reality). Here is a 747 simulator on eBay to give you an idea of what's in the box: https://www.ebay.com/i/293183009463 https://www.ebay.com/i/293183009463

jessaustin 7y ago
In theory simulators are very accurate. In reality they might be. I'd expect the simulator for an existing airframe with decades of service (like your 747-400) to be more accurate than that for a new airframe. The primary purpose of simulators is training, not testing. While both the airframe and its simulator are under development, substantial inaccuracies wouldn't surprise me. TFA quotes this dude's attorney thus: "The simulator was not reading right and had to be fixed to fly like the real plane." Is that true? Is that ass-covering? How are we going to find out from this dude's testimony? Other evidence must be examined. TFA says this pilot had a hard time with the simulator. We also know that these planes crash very often. We can't just put those two propositions together to prove that the simulator predicted these planes would often crash in this particular way.