ORIGINAL: Thomas B
ORIGINAL: Hossfly
Mr. Thomas B, I am not going back in memory or searching dates, etc. but I will state 3 problems that I remember.
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Plerase note that I was standing up for NTSB accident investigations and
not for the FAA...
1. The 737 ''failsafe'' rudder actuator that was not failsafe in every case was a tough one....was almost impossible to reproduce and if you can't reproduce it, it is a guess and not a concrete reason for the crash. I think the NTSB was right in not ruling on the CSprings accident sooner, until the proof from the PA accident was in hand. The NTSB has left VERY few air transport cases in their files with unknown causes....because they tend to never give up until the reasons for a crash are factually known and reproducable. Please note that Boeing was not too responsive on the fairly rare reports of rudder control issues and fought the announced cause fo the accident in PA. And note that the NTSB can only advise the FAA...and we know how stubborn they can be.
I happened to be assigned to a USAF squadron with 12 737's while the 737 rudder issue was going on. Once it was determined what was going on, the "fix" put out and supported by the FAA was to fly the approach 10kts faster to stay out of the zone where the rudder would lock hard over. The aircraft were allowed to remain in service hauling passenges up to 2 years until the scheduled phase inspection. Note that several 737 did go in in 3rd world countries with all passengers lost due to the rudder actuator so it wasn't like it was a minor problem when it happened..
The bottom line is that the FAA will cow to MONEY from lobbying..The UAV industry and airlines are MONEY.. Thankfully the AOPA recognized that they really needed to push to save general aviation thru the sport pilot program and were successful. They benefited in the end but they took care of the big issue first.
I believe that the AMA is to bent on selling its insurance and remaining a viable financial entity so much that they tried to push themselves on the FAA more than lobbying for freedom for recreational RC. I believe they at some levels have hosed us more than the FAA so far...The AMA has put its interests above the membership and all modelers.
They should have postured to STOP the regulation by the FAA then worried how to sell insurance. The play they made was in their self interest and has backfired to the detriment of all modelers..