re: Co-pilot walk around outside the plane

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I know zero about planes. Can you explain what you said in layman terms? That looked terrible.

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So, you know how the pilot moves the stick around in the cockpit and through all the linkages and flight control systems the control surfaces on the wings and rudder move in response? Well, depending on how the controls are built, it is possible on some planes for it to happen the other way around: if you move the control surfaces around, the stick will want to flop around in the cockpit. On a windy day, if it's gusty and someone's near the stick but not holding onto it, a good gust of wind that moves a control surface suddenly can make the stick crack someone pretty good.

So, planes that are affected like this can be quipped with gust locks that don't let anything in the control system move around while the plane's on the ground and there's no pilot controlling the stick. These gust locks and the other controls of the airplane are supposed to be built in such a way that you can never leave the ground with the locks engaged because the plane will be difficult, if not impossible, to control. Part of the pre-flight routine is to check that the control surfaces properly respond to control inputs as a final visual and tactile check by the pilot to make sure that no control lock systems are engaged and that the plane's control surfaces will respond properly once the pilot gets the plane in motion.

From some of the comments on the video, the pilot apparently did a proper pre-flight on this one and everything checked out, but something failed after takeoff that engaged the gust lock when the pilot pulled back on the stick to get airborne. Unfortunately, this locked the control surfaces as if the pilot were still pulling back on the stick and the plane responded accordingly, trying to continue to rotate around into a loop. The pilot tried to push the stick forward and it wasn't responding. I have no idea if this particular aircraft could do it at any airspeed or altitude, but certainly not immediately after takeoff. It was moving too low and too slow when it went into the loop, stalled, and plunged into the ground. The pilot's remains were near where the gust lock controls were, so there's pretty good evidence the pilot realized what was happening, but had far too little time and altitude to save the plane.

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Jesus is MY co-pilot.

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don't you dare touch him!

thank you captain copy and paste

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What do you think is the one control surface you could lose in flight (>3k ft) and best bring it down safely somewhere. Assuming flat terrain and all trims/flaps operable.

Ailerons
Rudder
Elevators

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I'd say the rudder. They simulate jammed/inop pitch or roll controls and it's a workout, the pitch especially. I'm drawing a blank but there was a crash a long time ago where the crew lost all hydraulic flight controls and got the airplane on the ground using differential thrust; a lot of people died but the fact that anyone walked away is pretty incredible.

ETA: united flight 232, Sioux City
LINK

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That had to be a white-knuckler with partial range on the controls. Wasn't this situation exposed during the preflight control check from the cockpit by applying full input to all the surfaces?

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The gust lock on the embraer is strange in that it Prevents the thrust levers from being increased more then a few inches unless it's released but it's also a 2 step release... the first release disengages the pin in the actual elevator and allows for control movement and the thrust levers to move forward to about 70-75% max power, after the pin releases you can then move the gust lock fully forward and get full thrust.

That flight crew only did the initial release. They had flight controls but didn't have anywhere close to takeoff power and didn't catch it. They got extremely lucky that they were on a long runway and not around any terrain.

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: united flight 232, Sioux City LINK

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Very experienced pilot, plus an instructor pilot along for the ride. Under the circumstances, a hell of a landing.

Wow, thanks for that very helpful, thorough explanation. Is it common for more than one pilot to donpr flight checks?

Pre flight checklist...