Movement against float.init being nan

[Walter Bright]

On 8/24/2022 6:30 PM, Adam D Ruppe wrote:
> On Thursday, 25 August 2022 at 01:19:55 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> If the hydraulic lines are hooked to the wrong ports, the airplane will be 
>> uncontrollable and will crash.
> 
> oh ye of little faith!
> 
> I read about a story where this happened. The pilots quickly found the plane 
> uncontrollable to the point where they asked for vectors to ditch into the ocean 
> so the crash wouldn't hurt anybody on the ground at least... but they couldn't 
> even control it well enough to successfully navigate out there. They kept flying 
> in random directions and ended up over ground again, but had enough altitude to 
> keep trying again.
> 
> After quite some time though, they actually recognized the "random, 
> uncontrollable" aircraft actually was responding to their inputs in a 
> predictable pattern, it was just all messed up. As they figured it out and 
> learned how to fly with these bizarro controls, their initial panic subsided and 
> they were able to successfully return to the airport for a safe landing!
> 
> (of course there are other similar stories without the happy ending so your 
> point is good, but i like this story)

The cases I've heard all resulted in a smoking hole in the ground just past the 
end of the runway. When the airplane does the wrong thing as the result of a 
control input, the natural pilot reflex is to push it harder, not try the other 
way. When you're a few feet off the ground, that means smacking it hard into the 
ground.

Your anecdote was surely not the elevators or ailerons. It might have been the 
rudder, where the pilots would have more of a chance.