Re: [OT] “Raise the nose, HAL.” “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

[Walter Bright]

On 4/21/2019 10:54 PM, Uknown wrote:
> I'm sure you wouln't fly in one until the fix has been published and the pilots 
> have been trained.

Actually, I would even in an unmodified 737MAX. The reason is that the way to 
deal with it, even if pilots don't know about it, is to follow their training 
for runaway stab trim. This is what the pilots did in the first Lion Air 
incident, and they landed without incident. In the second LA incident, and in 
the Ethiopian one, they did not and crashed.

It's simple:

1. The electric trim switches on the control column override the MCAS commands.

2. When trimmed, shut off the stab trim with the cutoff switches on the console.

Both pilots in the crashes were performing (1). The mystery to me is why they 
did not continue to do it, then perform (2). We'll have to wait for the NTSB 
report which hopefully can explain that.

I would expect with all this publicity even an incompetent pilot would be able 
to accomplish this.

BTW, I only saw one article publish (1) and (2). (The wording is from memory, I 
don't recall the exact words in the Boeing instructions.) All the other articles 
leave it out and prefer to publish hysterical clickbait articles.

Boeing still needs to fix the MCAS system, because how airplanes are made robust 
is to fix every point in the string of failures that led to a crash.

BTW, I was a nervous flyer before I worked at Boeing on flight control systems. 
Knowing how things actually worked and how things were built changed it all for 
me. An awful lot about what is written in newspapers about technical airplane 
issues is complete trash. Journalists don't know **** about airplanes, and they 
garble it all up. If you want the straight dope, read the NTSB incident reports.

The pilot's article linked to sounds authoritative, until one notices he's not 
an airline pilot, and (for instance) does not realize that all swept wing 
airplanes are fundamentally unstable, and that Rosie the Riveter knows nothing 
about stability issues.

You don't need to believe anything I say - so I recommend withholding judgement 
until the NTSB report(s) come out. You'll learn a lot reading them. The NTSB 
does a good job thoroughly stating the facts and leaving off the hysteria.