The big shift occurred during the Industrial Revolution. The burgeoning factories needed skilled labour, and thus mass education was born. All of a sudden a much higher proportion of the population had basic schooling. This meant that lots of people not only had the imagination, but also the formal training needed to…

As an only child, I can tell you that we are not all like that. My parents actually demanded a certain level of behaviour from me. ;)

I live 200 meters away from a popular tourist spot for mainland Chinese bus tours. I can assure that these guidelines are necessary.

The interesting effect in places like the Italian community in New Jersey is that the dialect of Italian spoken there seems to be an amalgam of dialects and accents from several places in Italy from whence immigrants originated. The resulting Italian dialect, while having strong roots in Southern Italy, does not…

The "a panini" thing drives me up the wall too! Same with "a biscotti". :)

With exception of some special rules for "c", Italian pronunciation is pretty much just reading off the page, in other words the opposite of English. ;)

Regarding force feedback, nothing stops a stick being designed with it. However the point of the sidestick in, say, an Airbus, is that it is a rate controller, not a surface deflection controller. Example: If the pilot inputs five degrees of right stick movement,that is converted into a certain right roll rate regardle…

Correct on the "a" in Lancia. However, the "e" at the end does not sound like "hey". It sounds a bit like the first "e" in "intended".

I'm with you. I love being pedantic. :)

Yokes being more user-friendly is highly debatable. I don't have a huge amount of experience with sticks but from an aircraft control perspective I didn't really notice a difference. Granted, the stick aircraft I flew was not FBW. FBW sticks are typically rate-control devices, not direct control devices and so a bit…

I'll copy from my comment above.

Left seaters fly with the left and right seaters with the right, regardless of yoke or stick. Most pilots learn to fly with the left from day one of flight school. The "center hand" is for the throttle(s). In a Boeing you certainly at times have both hands on the yoke, but in the stage of flying that requires the most…

I'm not Paul but I'll field this one. Triplets are problematic for several reasons, all of which are exacerbated the larger the aircraft. It is not so much of an issue in a bizjet, but nowadays forget it in an airliner.

I get that, but I don't think sidesticks are a "fad". They're a a logical way to control FBW airplanes.

Fair dinkum. Having said that, the Cessna TTX has a sidestick, but I'll grant you (just) that this came from an acquired company.

"New fad"? The A320 entered service three decades ago.

It's not a French thing. Sidesticks are the logical way to control a FBW aircraft. Compared to yokes, they are lightweight and don't take up a lot of space. There is no need for the two-handed leverage of a yoke since the aircraft is not being muscled about.

Thankfully I live about 3 hours flight away so I'm sure I'm safe from DPRK ballistic missiles.

Your plane seems to be leaking. I'd get that looked at... ;)

True. Mostly though, what irks me is the lack of taper and the excess fabric folding up on the back of the thighs. That's right, I'm irked.