RyanShort1 wrote:
I thought stomping on the rudder in Airbus aircraft was considered dangerous...
Ryan
It's all a matter of the context and circumstance under which you stomp the rudder. ALL large aircraft - whether Boeing, Airbuss, whatever, have design limits on the rudders on how much they can be deflected and at what speeds. Right after that American A300 crashed in New York right after 9-11, the NTSB put out a safety recommendation talking about NOT using full back to back control of the rudder at any speed. A lot of large airplanes have rudder limiters which reduce the amount of rudder authority you can put in as you get faster. Obviously, at faster speeds, a given rudder input will have greater effect, so full scale deflection is rarely needed. That American accident changed a lot preconceptions and techniques on how to use or not use the rudder in flight that is applicable to ALL large aircraft.
Basically, in summary, it's o.k. to stomp on the rudder on Airbuses, Boeings, etc. as long as you don't do a "full scale rudder reversal" going from stop to stop. One direction is fine, like what you would encounter on a crosswind landing. You just don't want to do a "full scale rudder reversal" at any speed, even well below the design speed of the rudder, because doing so can rip the tail off the aircraft.
For some light reading, I suggest:
The final NTSB report on the American A300 crash:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i ... 2321&key=1
The NTSB safety recommendation that came out right after the American A300 crash in New York:
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2002/A02_01_02.pdf
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