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Disclaimer: My experience in piloting is just a couple of hours flying planes in kerbal space program. Wouldn't that much speed cause the plane to ascent natur

Disclaimer: My experience in piloting is just a couple of hours flying planes in kerbal space program. Wouldn't that much speed cause the plane to ascent naturally, even with zero pitch, just by the body lift? (Although, it is quite possible that real life planes have negative body lift, I have no idea)

LordFast 5y ago
Fellow kerbal space program attendee here: I believe that while smaller planes will naturally pitch up as speed increases, jumbo jets are much more lumpant even with the correct flaps. That's the terrifying thing in my understanding: the plane basically had no manual pitch due to incorrect config values, and were barely gliding off the ground from minimal natural lift. Meanwhile the two potatoes at the helm were fiddling with the config values instead of pulling on the yoke.
deleted 5y ago
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selectodude 5y ago
They probably were given a command to stay at 4000 above ground (AGL) level after takeoff. The plane was to level off until further instructions from ATC. Since the plane was set to sea level on takeoff, the plane tried to level off at 4000 ft above sea level which…is not good. The plane was pitched down to descend.
- csunbird 5y ago
  Oh no. So, the computer was actually trying to keep the plane pitched down to avoid ascending naturally and keep the altitude stable. This is really, really bad.
  - jackweirdy 5y ago
    Well, the autopilot was disabled, and the flight director (which at a 1 sentence level is a visual indication of what the autopilot would do) was trying to keep the plane level at the configured altitude The flight director did the right thing — displayed how it would manage level flight The pilot did the wrong thing - copied the misconfigured flight director instead of flying the plane
- elihu 5y ago
  Isn't the airport in Dubai barely above sea level anyways? I mean, if the difference between ground level and sea level is less than a hundred feet, then it seems like it wouldn't account for a plane thinking it was at 4,000 feet when it was really at about 200.
- t0mas88 5y ago
  Pilot here. This is completely wrong, nobody ever gives altitude instructions above ground level. That doesn't exist in ATC terms.
sokoloff 5y ago
The airplane will seek its trimmed speed (which is adjustable via a very powerful adjustable pitch horizontal stabilizer). If there’s more power than needed for the trimmed speed, the airplane will climb. If there’s less, it will descend. 262 knots is well within the trim range, so it’s impossible to say without knowing the trim setting, but if the airplane was programmed to hold an altitude at 262 knots, it could (by driving the stab angle of incidence higher or lower, as needed)

LordFast 5y ago

Fellow kerbal space program attendee here: I believe that while smaller planes will naturally pitch up as speed increases, jumbo jets are much more lumpant even with the correct flaps. That's the terrifying thing in my understanding: the plane basically had no manual pitch due to incorrect config values, and were barely gliding off the ground from minimal natural lift. Meanwhile the two potatoes at the helm were fiddling with the config values instead of pulling on the yoke.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

selectodude 5y ago

They probably were given a command to stay at 4000 above ground (AGL) level after takeoff. The plane was to level off until further instructions from ATC. Since the plane was set to sea level on takeoff, the plane tried to level off at 4000 ft above sea level which…is not good. The plane was pitched down to descend.

csunbird 5y ago
Oh no. So, the computer was actually trying to keep the plane pitched down to avoid ascending naturally and keep the altitude stable. This is really, really bad.
- jackweirdy 5y ago
  Well, the autopilot was disabled, and the flight director (which at a 1 sentence level is a visual indication of what the autopilot would do) was trying to keep the plane level at the configured altitude The flight director did the right thing — displayed how it would manage level flight The pilot did the wrong thing - copied the misconfigured flight director instead of flying the plane
elihu 5y ago
Isn't the airport in Dubai barely above sea level anyways? I mean, if the difference between ground level and sea level is less than a hundred feet, then it seems like it wouldn't account for a plane thinking it was at 4,000 feet when it was really at about 200.
t0mas88 5y ago
Pilot here. This is completely wrong, nobody ever gives altitude instructions above ground level. That doesn't exist in ATC terms.

sokoloff 5y ago

The airplane will seek its trimmed speed (which is adjustable via a very powerful adjustable pitch horizontal stabilizer). If there’s more power than needed for the trimmed speed, the airplane will climb. If there’s less, it will descend. 262 knots is well within the trim range, so it’s impossible to say without knowing the trim setting, but if the airplane was programmed to hold an altitude at 262 knots, it could (by driving the stab angle of incidence higher or lower, as needed)