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Old 26th Apr 2019, 21:18
  #4376 (permalink)  
737 Driver
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: USA
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Fly the damn aircraft....

Originally Posted by HundredPercentPlease
Simple.

Remove the flaw. Either remove the aerodynamic stability problem or make the FBW fix a proper one (like an Airbus, triple inputs, 14 computers, multiple layers of automatic or selectable degraded flight modes).

Train the pilots. If a single failure (here AoA) causes a monster, then prepare the pilots by training.

As someone who has moved back and forth, twice, between the 737 and A320, I can't begin to describe how lowly I view the Renton tractor. Boeing made a flawed aircraft and failed to mandate sufficient training. The pilots are as much victims as the passengers. No doubt at all.
There will never be a flawless aircraft or flawless maintenance or flawless training or flawless pilots. But at the end of the day, it is the pilots and their passengers who will be on the receiving end of these inevitable flaws. Thus our focus and our determination to overcome those flaws ought to be greater.

Throughout the history of aviation, pilots have been handed unique malfunctions or adverse situations for which there was no prior history, no procedure, no checklist. Many of these situations were also initially confusing, mentally taxing, and potentially paralyzing. Some crews performed, if not flawlessly, at least well enough to stabilize the situation and get the aircraft safely back to earth. Some crews did not.

In a remarkable number of these events, the difference between success and failure came down to the exact same answer - the crew's ability to overcome the startle effect, look past the distractions, and focus on the basics of flying the aircraft. Turn off the automation, set the proper attitude, set the power, trim out the control forces, monitor the performance, move the aircraft away from the threat. The pilots don't have to be perfect or diagnose the problem right away. Fly the aircraft and buy some time. Very, very few of our non-normals need to be executed so fast that we can't first devote the majority of our attention and the necessary time to flying the aircraft.

Training is key, but it has to be the right kind of training. Training scripts in the simulator where you pretty much know not only the problem but the answer ahead of time do little to prepare a pilot for the visceral challenges of the unexpected. Overemphasis on automation to the point that even seasoned pilots feel that tad bit of discomfort when the autopilot and autothrottles click off is a definite warning sign. When all goes to hell, do you have a good idea - right now - where the aircraft pitch and power and airspeed should be for takeoff? low altitude? high altitude? missed approach? Do you know your memory items and limitations cold? If not, you have some homework to do.

It is too late to save the crew and passengers of these two accident, but it is not too late to learn from them. Some commercial pilots have stated here that they could not have done any better, and I'm here to say that is a cop out. If you are a commercial pilot and feel that you cannot - under the duress of distracting warnings and information - turn off the automation, set a reasonable pitch and power setting, establish a climb, hold a heading, and trim the controls as necessary, then you need to do something about that right now.
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