Originally Posted by
positiverate20
I agree with you on the sensor problem, but entirely disagree with the perception that a failure of the system would have minimal risk to the aircraft.
In the scenario given, hundreds of feet above ground, stick shaker, the captain is in a pretty tough situation and is trouble shooting- does stab memory item, switches stab cut-out. Alarms off, and thanks to yoke and increased thrust returns to some form of climb. At this stage, despite your argument that the pilot should be able to return trim to normal, he has just followed the procedures that Boeing themselves have instructed. Checklist complete, some stability back and now focus on safely trying to get back to ground.
Now, throughout this next phase, with the stab having X° nose down, it may not present itself as a problem due to the additional engine power, because, at increased thrust, as you've explained, the Max set-up has a tendency toward a higher AoA, which is why MCAS is required in the first place! So, in a sense, the characteristics of the MAX set-up will be masking the trim. MCAS is required for certification to counteract the increasing rotation around the CG caused by the both the thrust moment and aerodynamic behaviour of the engine cowling of the Max engine. So, in this precise stage of the hypothetical flight the PIC may not actually notice the plane being out of trim, and if he does, will surely not realise just how much out of trim he actually is. Any other time in normal MAX operation the autotrim or the MCAS trim would be operating anyway. MCAS, as you've said, is a certification requirement for MAX aircraft because of it's specific aerodynamic characteristics. What I'm portraying in this scenario is that if the pilot functioned perfectly during the emergency at 190, but in doing so cut-off the trim at X° nose down. That trim hasn't changed and the checklists didnt require the crew to make any manual trim wheel changes. By the time he actually realises how out of trim he is, he's doing 350, and despite the stab still being at the same X° nose down since cut-out, the forces have multiplied. Now if there is any nose down attitude or reduction in power then there's absolutely no chance to recover.
Obviously all hypothetical, an airspeed disagree on takeoff could lead to circumstances similarly, or a multitude of other possible reasons, however, in the situation that I've hypothesized, it would almost certainly always end in a similar steep nose down attitude.
737 is not a FBW system with augmented elevator control. The elevator follows only the column. The pilot will know at all times when flying manually just how out of trim the airplane is by how much column force/displacement is needed to maintain the target pitch attitude. Having shut off electric stabilizer control, the workload associated with maintaining pitch trim is increased as it requires manual, mechanical rotation of the trim wheel, but the cues as to when trim is needed, in which direction, and how much are the same as what the pilot has seen for every hour of flying that airplane manually that he or she has done. As with every day flight with a completely healthy airplane, the amount of pitch trim required to recenter the column after having used that column to compensate for the pitching moment changes associated with thrust and configuration changes will be no different and thus the cue to provide pitch trim will be no different. The task of inserting that trim is higher workload, but nothing any 737 pilot (MAX or otherwise) should find particularly difficult to keep up with.
From your mention of "autotrim" I get the sense that you may not realize that when flying the 737 manually the automatic stabilizer control functions that are active (STS and MCAS) tend to drive the stabilizer away from trim thus making the pilot trim workload higher than it would be without them. The automatic stabilizer control is not there to "automatically trim the stabilizer". It is in fact there to "automatically untrim the stabilizer" such that the pilot has to provide column in the opposite direction yielding handling qualities and awareness that are dictated by the FARs.