I read the F-18 FCS bulletin a while back for v40, and I do recall that it had a bunch of 4 channel AOA failure software upgrades, like being able to pick the operable AOA probe automatically, or to rely on the INS value. Our jets are getting the upgrade soon, and I haven't flown with it yet, but I suspect the annoying 4 channel AOA failures will be less annoying - particularly at the boat.I’m not an F/A-18 pilot anymore, so I’ve wondered about how the engineers overcame the dreaded 4-channel AOA failure for PLM, as it always seemed like the most common worst-case behind the boat scenario. Is GAIN ORIDE smarter now or has something else changed?
Quick related sea story:
My last deployment was the first one where that particular air wing used PLM. I loved it. Flying passes had never been so easy....right until I got a 4 channel AOA failure...two flights in row on two different jets (PSA: Tell your PCs not to try and see if the old style AOA probes will spin freely all the way around. Spoiler alert—they don’t.) For those two flights it was back to full manual passes to get aboard. On one of them it wasn’t apparent which probe was the good one to select (both showing about the same), which meant no E-bracket and that I actually had to, gasp, scan airspeed during the approach (still going to therapy for the PTSD caused by this one).