Originally Posted by
michaelbinary
Last year my first ever real in-flight incident was in my CAP-10, flying downwind 1000ft AGL in the circuit. The electric trim ran away to the end stop and suddenly I was pointing at the ground, After pooing myself, I worked out what it was quite quickly and returned the trim to neutral, where it promptly ran away to the end stop again. So I recentralised it, and disabled it. Problem solved, although had to land without flaps.
Gave me a real heart thumping moment until it was sorted.
The stick forces even in my small plane were quite high.
At the next opportunity I went up to 5000 ft and had a practice while slowly moving the trim to its end stops to see if the plane was controllable, which it was. Uncomfortable, but controllable.
I don't think anybody should second guess what the pilots should and should not have done, or did and didn't do, until the full report is made public and we can see the facts.
I think Boeing will have a lot to answer to with explanations and money before these planes are certified for flight again. And then you have the public relations problem of getting bums on seats again.
Nobody is questioning that what they faced was a challenging situation. But these aren't recreational pilots out on a Sunday afternoon. These are professional revenue pilots, in theory trained to a very high standard. I agree, let's wait for the report, but you can't say "let's wait for the report, and Boeing is going to have a lot to answer for." I will bet anything that if we get a fair, complete report, it will cite design problems, single point of failure issues, yes - BUT I will eat my shoes if pilot training, adherence to standard procedures, maintenance practices, and even possibly parts sourcing and environmental factors (sand, high humidity, etc.) aren't all factors. I fully expect the end result to be a smorgasbord of issues. It usually is.