leading edge flaps

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 23:03:31 -0800, Mary Shafer
wrote:

Of course, the O'Hare DC-10 had a slat asymmetry, although that was an
asymmetric retraction of an extended slat. Subsequent simulator
studies showed that, even knowing the problem was asymmetric slats,
the airplane was too low to recover.

Mary

If we're talking about the same DC-10 that was lost at O'Hare about 20
years ago, the slat assymetry was caused by the engine and pylon
departing the wing, up and over and in the process taking a chunk of
leading edge with it.

The accident investigation and subsequent simulator trials
demonstrated fairly conclusively that the aircraft was recoverable,
however training to immediately pull up and reduce speed to Vmc was
incorrect. What was needed was the more high performance airplane
practice of "unload for control" in which you (counter-intuitively)
ease off the back pressure possibly all the way to zero G and let
airspeed build to a point where more G is available for the recovery.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8