Julie wrote:

Rich Grise wrote:

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Joerg" wrote:

Wouldn't the pilot feel if the auto pilot issued lots
of servo repositionings? I am not a pilot but I could
imagine that would make for a pretty uncomfortable
flight. At least for the passengers.

Hmm, good question. Still, it might be possible that rapid, very small
repositions could be imperceptible. I was just taking a wild shot at
this one.
--

I read somewhere that the F-16 is so unstable that a human
can't fly it without the computer control. I'd think that
means it makes corrections faster than a human can, but it's
making corrections to a known airframe, I guess. I'd think
they'd want the response time of an autopilot to be fairly
slow so it doesn't do abrupt stuff - but then it really
wouldn't be able to handle weather.

Cheers!
Rich


Yes, this is true of all modern fighters.

If you watch movies of a takeoff or landing, you will notice the ailerons and
horizontal stabilizers fluttering all over the place in what is pretty much
straight flight.

But it is only straight and level flight because of all of the control
surface "fluttering!"

Matt