gfulton wrote:


You can lose elevator control and fly with the stabilizer. If an Airbus,
(A319/320/321/330 are the ones I'm sure about), loses all electrics and
computers, engines and engine driven hyd. pumps, and aux. power unit, it's
down to flying with the horiz. stabilizer and the rudder. The rudder does
have cable control and hyd. for the stab. is provided by the RAT. (Ram air
turbine driven hyd. pump and generator that drops out of the belly of the
fuselage.) An Airbus maint. instructor set me up that way in the A330
simulator in Miami, and it gave me a little more respect for pilots. I
finally got it straight and level, but he said that everybody in the back
would have puked by now.
And to clarify the Japanese 747 that lost the vert. stab., it was caused
by a bad repair on the aft pressure bulkhead as someone here already
mentioned. The air had to go somewhere and it blew out the structure under
the vert. stab. That stabilizer sure as hell didn't come off because the
pilot kicked the rudder pedals too hard as in the case of the Eurotrash.
A runaway horiz. stabilizer has caused a crash every time I can
remember. As in the case of the MD-80 off the California coast a while
back. They always burn off the wing tanks first, which causes the CG to
shift forward, (nose down), and the stabilizer_has_to compensate for that.

Garrett Fulton



Yes, losing elevator CONTROL is different than losing elevator surface,
depending on the type of trim mechanism being used, and CG location at
time of loss.