Originally Posted by
Ian W
Boeing is being castigated for assuming that pilots would do what in the past would be considered "a basic skill learned from day 1". In fact it would have been deemed insulting to not assume it is an innate skill. Yet in multiple postings here and other threads it has been said that trimming to unload the control column is something special that needs to be highlighted in NNCs (what are those Ns - oh yes...). Is special training really required for experienced pilots in _trimming_?? Apparently yes. What would have happened to both accident aircraft if the pilots had kept them in trim? -A clue - that is what the crew of the penultimate Lion Air flight did.
Posted about this on one of the countless other MAX threads, but it probably bears repeating.
Not too long ago I was at special event at the Museum of Flight - not only was I seated at a table with a bunch of current and retired Alaska Air pilots, during the cocktail hour I ran into a flight test pilot friend who'd been involved in the MAX development (Alaska is an all 737 operator - classics and NGs). To a man, they all agreed that if the stab tirm started doing something you didn't understand or like, the very
first thing they'd do is turn it off and trim it manually. Hence the reason Boeing didn't treat MCAS as a flight critical system. However these were all older, high time experienced pilots
That being said, they also all agreed that no sim training for MCAS (or any of the other MAX differences) was a huge miss...