Probably could have connected to a modem and connected to a BBS using whatever MD-DOS communication package that was around at the time. Never thought about it at the time.
We had encrypted radios for the Police back then as well. Using a technology we could all use today given how easily is for people to listen in to our calls now.
Turns out though that if one PFC should ever fail it does not reboot it halts, that leaves you in a far less fault tolerant state unless the pilot takes some action. There is a fourth PFC, waiting in stand by, that can be switched in if I remember correctly.
If the whole shebang fails they all shut down! No worries the 777 can be flown using the remaining analog control system, all be it not so easily.
I can see why they leave it Halted, rather than just reboot and become part of the triumverate. If it Halts, its quite likely to simply halt again, forcing another election of some sort right, so why force another reconvergence event. Let the other 2 PFC's run in a Hot-Standby arrangement, and proceed. Obviously, if a second PFC fails, then its time to start sweating, and either boot PFC4 up, or start looking at the nearest available airport?
Isn't the latest Airbus mostly fly-by-wire with the computers able to over-ride the pilot, whereas Boeing is the opposite?
Was it the Air France with the iced over pitot tube the most recent example?
The 777 has a big switch high up in the cockpit that the pilot can throw in order to totally disable computer control by the PFC's. The plane is still fly-by-wire but the control is purely analogue electronics. In this mode it's not so easy to fly manually but doable. Certain "luxuries" like the force feedback to the controls no longer work. The stick vibrator no longer functions to indicate a stall condition.
The auto-pilot is a separate system, I have no idea if that is still usable in this analogue fall back mode.
I have no knowledge of the Airbus other than what I pick up in the news and around the net. I wonder how a pilot can fly it at all with those stupid little "gaming" joysticks they have. A big idea with the 777 was that despite being fly-by-wire the pilots still had their familiar controls complete with force feedback like the non-fly-by-wire planes.
Was it the Air France with the iced over pitot tube the most recent example?
That wasn't any example of bad flight controls. That was purely pilot error due to disorientation, a rookie at the controls and unfortunate timing of the captain out of the cockpit when they hit an ice condition. That Air France (Heading From Brazil) was flying correctly (even without air speed indication) until the rookie decided to pull up (even though they were at cruising height already) without increasing throttle.
Looking back I think I should clarify. That wireless "network" of the 1980's was not an IP network as we know it today. It was a wireless mesh protocol working between many node though. Synchronous data packets with 96 bit sync sequences, sent out in a kind of token passing scheme as far as I remember it. Everything subject to ECC. Pretty slow 1200 baud or some such. Much better range than WIFI
Looking back now, at a time when have HTTPS, SSH, WPA, everywhere, it's amazing that the encryption was the big deal in those projects. The algorithms were all hush-hush and nobody used encryption in the regular computing world. About that time I worked on one project where they were building their own custom ASIC to do encryption in what amounted to a Ethernet IP router box. Private network on one side, encrypted interface to the public network on the other. It was a huge and expensive box. The project was cancelled.
Depressingly dumb Smile politicians around the world keep pressing to take such security away from us normal people, campaigning for back doors in everything.
Comments
http://huskyhunter.shedlandrobotics.co.uk/
http://www.nymrsc.org.uk/Jons Timer3a.htm
Worked over standard military pack pack radios.
Probably could have connected to a modem and connected to a BBS using whatever MD-DOS communication package that was around at the time. Never thought about it at the time.
We had encrypted radios for the Police back then as well. Using a technology we could all use today given how easily is for people to listen in to our calls now.
I can see why they leave it Halted, rather than just reboot and become part of the triumverate. If it Halts, its quite likely to simply halt again, forcing another election of some sort right, so why force another reconvergence event. Let the other 2 PFC's run in a Hot-Standby arrangement, and proceed. Obviously, if a second PFC fails, then its time to start sweating, and either boot PFC4 up, or start looking at the nearest available airport?
Isn't the latest Airbus mostly fly-by-wire with the computers able to over-ride the pilot, whereas Boeing is the opposite?
Was it the Air France with the iced over pitot tube the most recent example?
The auto-pilot is a separate system, I have no idea if that is still usable in this analogue fall back mode.
I have no knowledge of the Airbus other than what I pick up in the news and around the net. I wonder how a pilot can fly it at all with those stupid little "gaming" joysticks they have. A big idea with the 777 was that despite being fly-by-wire the pilots still had their familiar controls complete with force feedback like the non-fly-by-wire planes.
That wasn't any example of bad flight controls. That was purely pilot error due to disorientation, a rookie at the controls and unfortunate timing of the captain out of the cockpit when they hit an ice condition. That Air France (Heading From Brazil) was flying correctly (even without air speed indication) until the rookie decided to pull up (even though they were at cruising height already) without increasing throttle.
Looking back I think I should clarify. That wireless "network" of the 1980's was not an IP network as we know it today. It was a wireless mesh protocol working between many node though. Synchronous data packets with 96 bit sync sequences, sent out in a kind of token passing scheme as far as I remember it. Everything subject to ECC. Pretty slow 1200 baud or some such. Much better range than WIFI
Those were my school days. I remember seeing packet radio operating on a C64 in the late 1980's when I moved to nearest city to get a job.
Depressingly dumb Smile politicians around the world keep pressing to take such security away from us normal people, campaigning for back doors in everything.
What was this thread about again?