Originally Posted by 737 Driver
I have no doubt that this is true, but it is also largely irrelevant from a procedural viewpoint. The pilots don’t need to be able to read a wiring diagram and tell you all the things that happens when they throw the cutout switches. They just need to know when they need to throw the cutout switches - as in the case of the runaway stab trim procedure.
737 driver, I have an itch and please take this comment with the best of intent.
When I was taught to fly, PPL through CPL etc, it was instilled in me to understand what every switch/knob did before I played with it (initial thanks to Norman Buddin, ex Hunter pilot and CFI). We were not in the business of altering things without understanding the impact.
So, please correct me if I am wrong, but earlier versions of the 737 had two distinct outcomes associated with the two stab trim switches whilst the Max basically has two switches in series? Somewhere along the line a change operating procedures seem to have pre-dated the wiring change. I’m trying to understand why pre-Max pilots didn’t know, or weren’t told about, the difference between the switches. Isn’t it better airmanship to understand why, what and how when managing aircraft systems, or are we witness to the pre-cursor of ‘Children of the Magenta’ in pilots who never questioned why they threw two switches and what each did?