I do not understand why Captain Ralph Tuttle (Flight International, 19-25 November) feels moved to blame light aircraft training for the Airbus A300 fin/rudder failure that occurred near New York JFK airport in November 2001. If we accept his reasoning we must blame all airliner accidents on initial training because that is where it all starts. Four-ring airline captains did not start their training on a Boeing 747 or an Airbus A340; they moved up the light single/light twin ladder.
The control input that, according to Tuttle, may have removed the fin and rudder assembly, was provoked by the pilot believing the aircraft was in a stall and trying to raise a dropped wing with a bootfull of rudder. But when a stall is accompanied by a dropped wing you do not try and raise it with opposite rudder. Such action could provoke a spin in a training aircraft. When a wing drops during a stall, the long established technique is application of sufficient rudder to stop a yaw developing. While this is applied the nose is lowered to unstall the aircraft, then the wings are levelled with aileron.
There was a time, before the Second World War, when some instructors used to teach "raise the dropped wing with opposite rudder" with interesting results!
Alan Bramson Bickley, UK
Source: Flight International
