shimmydampner wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 2:09 pm
I think there are key points you're either not taking into consideration or not understanding. This is not a case of taking an aircraft trimmed for straight and level flight, and making it climb or descend without the use of the elevator. We've probably all seen that during ab initio training as a demonstration of the normal effects of adding/subtracting power from the stable aircraft equation. However, it sounds like this was not a case of a stable, straight and level, trimmed aircraft. Quite the opposite in fact. If you went flying and trimmed the nose of your aircraft down to the point that you could not pull against it, do you honestly believe that adding power will arrest your descent?
Yes. Maybe not much, but it will be someting.
shimmydampner wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 2:09 pm
I would say to try it the next time you go flying and let us know how that works, but I really don't think that's a good idea. Put another way, if A (nose down attitude) + P (given power setting) = X (increasing airspeed and rate of descent) you believe that (assuming A is a constant) the way to reduce X is to increase P?
This is mathematically such a simplification, that you can't really answer that. For starters, you are combining both opposing views into one variable X such that any reply is meaningless.
Let's say the plane is trimmed for speed X, which in nose down could be a speed that exceeds Vne. Ok, that plane will want to accelerate towards that speed. If you now add power, the plane will still want to accelerate towards that speed, but once it achieves that speed, it will/should automatically raise the nose. That will arrest the descend rate.
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shimmydampner wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 2:09 pm
Furthermore, if you're in that position and the aerodynamic forces from your excessive and increasing airspeed are such that you cannot physically move a control surface, do you think that increasing those forces are somehow going to help you gain control?
They came out of a normal/slow climb speed regime. Then someting happened and they lost control of the elevator. The nose went down. Why would they expect for control to return if they slowed down to the speed where they lost said control? That doesn't make sense. Trying to arrest the descent rate by leaving the power where it is and praying that the nose would come up again would be, strictly aerodynamically speaking, the smartest choice.
shimmydampner wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2019 2:09 pm
Have you never trained unusual attitudes?
Yes, and they are always done at altitude with lots of height to recover, and with a working elevator.