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Old 7th May 2019, 13:14
  #5076 (permalink)  
737 Driver
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: USA
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Originally Posted by rog747
Are there any contributors here who are 737 pilots who transitioned to the MAX?

May I ask please,
If you did, did you have any SIM, classroom, or Line training on the MAX and it's differences, or was it purely on-line modules, thus was your first flight on a ''pax on board'' flight?

Were you made fully aware of the adverse pitch up changes, and CG issues of the new MAX due to the design enforced forward location of the new larger engines (which can now cause lift) at low weights/high power applications resulting in a (unrecoverable?) high AOA? (which we now are aware, necessitated the MCAS software patch)

Were you (before the 2 fatal and 1 nearly accidents) fully informed/trained on the new MCAS systems and it's functionality, implications, and what to do if it went rogue?

Thanks.
MAX was added to our fleet of NG's about a year ago. All training was either online or bulletins pushed to our Ipads. There is a quick reference card in the cockpit with key reminders. I had a couple of opportunities to fly the MAX before it was grounded. It actually flies very nicely, and the only real issue for me was that some of the switches and indicators were in different places. It would be comparable to transitioning from a 2001 Ford F-150 to a 2019 model. Drives pretty much the same, some new bells and whistles, some new switchology for the radios and climate control, but still a Ford F-150.

Our company continually stressed that the transition would be relatively straightforward, and to a certain point that was true in the context of normal operations. However, my contention always was (and this is not 20/20 hindsight) that any issues with the MAX would be less a case of normals operations, but rather non-normal ops. As we have seen in aviation time and time again, it is very difficult to predict all the unique failure modes that may arise with a new aircraft. Given that, my concern with the MAX was not with adapting to any differences when things were going right, but rather how different it might be when things were going wrong. Sadly, those concerns were not misplaced.
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