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Old 4th Apr 2019, 17:51
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wheelsright
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
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The biggest issue that I see from the data so far is the massive authority that MCAS has and how small the authority of the STS/ pickle switch is. Two massive MCAS AND trim adjustments in the space of 29 secs sealed the fate of the flight. If is not clear if it was possible to manually trim given the airspeed but unlikely due to control pressure. The ground proximity probably precluded thrust reduction or runaway trim recovery procedure.

The crew would have had to correctly diagnose the problem and flicked the trim disconnect switches in just over 60s from stick-shaker to unwanted MCAS AND. It seems the crew did not make all the right choices but hardly reckless driving either. I suspect that the overall picture is that that Boeing are asking way too much of their customers to fly this aircraft. It is an accident waiting to happen. Broadly speaking the data shows a horrible control system that does not work properly and could have been much more safely and better designed. It also shows that pilots may not always make all the best decisions when under high levels of stress.

Being a little flippant... a logical solution is to automatically disconnect electric trim if there is a left side stick-shaker condition... or instead of alpha vane disagree indication it could automatically disconnect MCAS (slightly more serious solution). Behind the systemic problems is the question of why the AOA sensors failed... is this a freak, or is there something more fundamental at work?
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