Originally Posted by
PerPurumTonantes
There are two problems with it. The pilot seems to have done rather a lot by 400ft.
No more than I do on any other takeoff emergency. I get to practice several of these a year during recurrent training, and it’s a pretty standard drill to focus primarily on these basic parameters until you get some altitude under you.
And leaving flaps down seems a bit too convenient.
It’s more habit than convenience. My general practice on any takeoff emergency is to leave some flaps hanging unless a procedure calls for otherwise until such time that I determine that I will not be returning to the departure field. This slows things down considerably and burns fuel quicker.
If you just add a bit of delay in pulling the stick shaker CBs, and you happen to clean up (which would be perfectly good airmanship), then the MCAS genie is out of the bottle and you're in test pilot mode.
Sure, I’ll play along. Of course, you’ll have to assume I haven’t put on the A/P by now, and since I’ve pulled the stick shaker circuit breaker (not procedure, BTW, but I’d be inclined to do it anyway) and finished the Airspeed Unreliable NNC, there would be no reason not to ask HAL for some assistance. So, there I am hand-flying, bring the flaps up, and BAM!, MCAS kicks in. What MCAS will then attempt to do is run the trim nose down for 9 continuous seconds and spin the trim wheel about 37 times. I’ve asked this before, and I’ll ask this again: Starting from a stabilized, in-trim platform,
exactly how long should a qualified 737 type-certified Captain who is hand-flying the aircraft let the trim run in one direction before he/she does something about it?
Therein lies your answer. What you have at this point is runaway stab trim. Our procedures really don’t care what the source of the runaway is. If you have an undesired and unexplained stab trim input, you are expected to intervene.
Reality is more complex, time is more flexible, cognitive skills are worse than the scripts that we write after the event.
Again I think everyone agrees with you that there needs to be more emphasis on hand flying skills throughout the whole industry and that 200h is ludicrous for a FO.
I do not disagree, but there really is a limit to how much befuddlement should be expected of a professional flight crew entrusted with the lives of 150+ souls. If a pilot cannot overcome the initial surprise factor in pretty short order, fall back on basic airmanship skills and execute known procedures, then perhaps they should reconsider their chosen career.