Originally Posted by
Sailvi767
Depending on speed they aircraft can be controlled with full nose down trim. It’s highly unlikely MCAS trimmed the aircraft full nose down since it only moves in increments of 2.5 degrees and if the pilot countered it with the electric trim the aircraft would remain close to a trimmed state. Any pilot with a basic level of competence would counter the trim to attempt to remain in trim. The MCAS if getting bad inputs would again after a period of time input 2.5 units of trim again. It’s not instantaneous and the pilot would be alerted by feel, sight and noise. At the point you would expect the pilot to disconnect the trim and continue the flight using manual trim. Pretty much a non event for a competent crew.
So, aircraft are thumping into ground with full nose down trim, maybe twice. There’s record of at least one US Max pilot (presumably with the mandated 1500hrs+) saying he was line flying and didnt really know how to operate the aircraft. Boeing appear to have designed and implemented a system with a single point of failure and then neglected to tell anyone about it’s existence, never mind foibles. Our industry is failing the public, whether that is with cost-cutting finance-driven design, inadequate training & flight manuals, or so-called third world operators who are being gleefully sold the ‘latest’ technology. Meanwhile, in corporate HQs ‘risk assessments’ are done, complete with acceptable loss rates. The only winners appear to be lawyers who will now make careers and private yatchs from obfuscating and finger pointing.
If your taxi driver pitched-up in a vehicle that first hit the roads on 9 April 1967, 9 days after my birthday, would you get in or would you wait for the next ride? The broomhandle and the broom have been replaced/modified numerous times over but were still waxing-lyrical about how it’s the same broom we bought 50 years back. Yes, I’m being a bit simplistic but it’s still time to wake up.
Shame on our industry.