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WHACKMASTER 03-23-2022 08:40 AM


Originally Posted by RJSAviator76 (Post 3393543)
Until one has flown overseas, they'll have a difficult time understanding many things about these two crashes. It is a completely different world out there. Everything is based on autopilot. When doing a V1 cut, the very first item you do is turn the autopilot on at 400'. Before doing any checklist or memory items... autopilot first. When doing a visual approach, it requires to be programmed and both pilots will without fail be heads down trying to program it instead of turning off the auto-magic and flying the plane and uncoupled visual approach is practically an emergency maneuver. Autothrottle doesn't work or does something unexpected? They'll fly it right into a stick shaker and blame Boeing - see Asiana in SFO.

It's a different world out there. But careful, some of our progressive friends may call you some kind of an *ist or *phobe for even suggesting that.

Bingo. I don’t think pilots in the U.S. can fully appreciate how ingrained automation reliance is to the overseas autopilot monkeys/children of the magenta.

DeltaboundRedux 03-23-2022 08:58 AM

The trim bias on an auto land sequence is considerable. A go around at 50 feet with a high thrust setting coupled with a stabilizer runaway at low altitudes would be extremely challenging for even experienced 737 pilots, particularly with the “startle factor”. (For example).

Which hasn’t happened, as far as I know.

It would be interesting to have thrown some of the MCAS failures at regular crews in the sim with no warning back when this came out and see what happened.



(“Understanding Air France 447” was a great book if you know Airbus systems. The scenario that killed everyone on board that flight had previously been dealt with successfully a couple of times by NWA crews. There was also a known AD that was addressing the mechanical weak point over time; I suppose the takeaway is to be aware of ADs for your aircraft all the time and be ready for possible consequences).

CBreezy 03-23-2022 09:00 AM


Originally Posted by DeltaboundRedux (Post 3393582)
The trim bias on an auto land sequence is considerable. A go around at 50 feet with a high thrust setting coupled with a stabilizer runaway at low altitudes would be extremely challenging for even experienced 737 pilots, particularly with the “startle factor”. (For example).

Which hasn’t happened, as far as I know.

It would be interesting to have thrown some of the MCAS failures at regular crews in the sim with no warning back when this came out and see what happened.



(“Understanding Air France 447” was a great book if you know Airbus systems. The scenario that killed everyone on board that flight had previously been dealt with successfully a couple of times by NWA crews. There was also a known AD that was addressing the mechanical weak point over time; I suppose the takeaway is to be aware of ADs for your aircraft all the time and be ready for possible consequences).

My understanding was that MCAS in the accidents only activated once the aircraft was flaps 0
​​​​​

Texasbound 03-23-2022 09:20 AM


Originally Posted by CBreezy (Post 3393564)
There are no notes in the memory items to trim out the runaway trim condition.

There were, in the Boeing checklist.

Airlines adopt their own. They were in Lion Air's. Not sure about Ethiopian but it was clear in the AD.

Texasbound 03-23-2022 09:21 AM


Originally Posted by CBreezy (Post 3393584)
My understanding was that MCAS in the accidents only activated once the aircraft was flaps 0
​​​​​

That is correct. He was talking about runway stab for other failures.

rickair7777 03-23-2022 09:24 AM


Originally Posted by DeltaboundRedux (Post 3393582)
(“Understanding Air France 447” was a great book if you know Airbus systems. The scenario that killed everyone on board that flight had previously been dealt with successfully a couple of times by NWA crews. There was also a known AD that was addressing the mechanical weak point over time; I suppose the takeaway is to be aware of ADs for your aircraft all the time and be ready for possible consequences).

IIRC the AD was in process fleet-wide, and the work was scheduled for the accident aircraft upon completion of the fatal flight.

GogglesPisano 03-23-2022 11:23 AM


Originally Posted by Texasbound (Post 3393529)
Wow, so after all that training you don't realize that using the manual wheel is at the end of the checklist? If you start the memory items withing 10 seconds you will not be wildly out of trim when doing the last part. It's called flying.

Control column............................................ .....Hold firmly

Autopilot (if engaged).......................................... .Disengage

Autothrottle (if engaged)........................................Di sengage

Control column and thrust levers..........................Control airplane
pitch attitude and airspeed

Main Electric
Stabilizer trim.............................................R educe control
column forces

If the runaway stops after the autopilot is disengaged:

Do not re-engage the autopilot or autothrottle.

----

If the runaway continues after the autopilot is disengaged:

STAB TRIM CUTOUT
switches (both)............................................ ....CUTOUT

If the runaway continues:
Stabilizer
trim wheel........................................Grasp and hold

I may not have been clear. In the sim we practiced recovery from a full nose-down trim situation. The ballet between the pilots: The PF had to release all back pressure as the houses get bigger so that the PM could start cranking in NU trim was completely counter-intuitive. All this at 300+ knots.

Read Post #94.

DeltaboundRedux 03-23-2022 11:35 AM


Originally Posted by CBreezy (Post 3393584)
My understanding was that MCAS in the accidents only activated once the aircraft was flaps 0
​​​​​

Yeah, I'm definitely mixing airframes here. To clarify:

1. In a non-MAX 737, the trim bias for autoland is a high, and a Stab trim runaway would be a handful on stab trim runaway-now manually hand flown go around. No MCAS required; but there is a Stab Runaway checklist because presumably, it's possible.

2. For the MAX with the MCAS, it would have been great if the NTSB could have sent a bunch of non-check airmen types through the Lion Air/Adis Ababa scenarios with absolutely zero warning or preparation to see what the "average" pilot would have done. Presumably, the Boeing test pilots and engineers were concerned that the "average" pilot wouldn't be able to identify and correct a potential problem in a timely fashion. Hard to get qualified "average" pilots to just show up in a sim somewhere; the self selection bias of such a group would be pretty high.

Texasbound 03-23-2022 03:01 PM

U.S. jury finds former Boeing 737 MAX pilot not guilty in fraud case (msn.com)

Aero1900 03-23-2022 04:27 PM

All of the chest thumping "An American pilot wouldn't have crashed!" is great and all except for the fact that Boeing sells jets to every airline in the world.

The company needs to make a product that the customer can manage


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