In an embodiment, an aircraft includes an actuator and a flight control computer interfaced with the actuator. The flight control computer is configured to: increase an initiating force output by an initiating channel of the actuator; stop the increasing of the initiating force in response to observing restraining forces on restraining channels of the actuator; hold the initiating force at a quiescent initiating value while the restraining channels hold the restraining forces at quiescent restraining values; increase the initiating force to a target initiating value while the restraining channels increase the restraining forces to target restraining values; calculate a force fight test result by summing a difference between the target initiating value and the quiescent initiating value with differences between the target restraining values and the quiescent restraining values; and indicate the actuator failed verification in response to the force fight test result being greater than a first predetermined threshold.