Originally Posted by
wiedehopf
@flyingfalcon
I get the impression you are mixing AoA and pitch attitude.
If you are flying level (not descending or climbing) and there are no significant up/downdrafts then pitch attitude and AoA are linked.
But when you are descending fast you can have a high AoA while having a negative pitch attitude.
So in that situation MCAS would still activate and if the AoA value is correct it would indeed be correct for it to activate.
Assuming the pilot does not pull further on the stick compensating the nose down trim, MCAS will make the plane pitch down.
I see, thank you for those examples.
We typically see it described as preventing a stall, I guess that's why it seems odd to see it working when the plane is in a dive. In this case I suppose it would still be keeping the plane from pitching upward to quickly.
I wonder if the erratic oscillating pitching up and down movement we see in the recent crash scenarios could be MCAS over activating or not resetting properly to flight scenarios of both negative and positive pitch attitude and high AoA?