Salute!
Thank you,
Bum.....
It's totally ass-backwards to put feel on the stick by moving a primary control surface. I thought the stick controlled the surface, not the other way round!
I fully appreciate the effort and $$$ that would have been required to cert the MAX without MCAS. Yep! Maybe it would not be qualified to exploit all the grandfather cert stuff, but the efforrt would certainly have been cheaper than what is now happening, and a lot more safe plane IMHO. Just selling one or two or fifty planes would have paid for all the pain and agony. And a thousand planes on order would now be cranking out. But NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
As far as increased back pressure for increasing AoA, and
Bum's comment, it appears the plane already had something in the way of the direct connections to the control surfaces. So all the ropes, cables levers and pulley folks here need to show how "mechanical" the plane is without STS and MCAS and ..... and......
This fixation on training bugs me. I can see it now.
Show up Monday and boss says, "Gums! Get your skinny arse to the sim to see what might happen with this new gizmo on the MAX". "Yessir".
Sim IP says "there is an undocumented feature on the MAX that might crank in unwanted nose down trim, but it's unlikely. Nevertheless, if it goes rogue just after takeoff, you should be prepared". I like that. Be prepared. My Boy Scout exposure and numerous survival schools, altitude chamber rides featuring explosive decompression, some parasailing and practice escaping from under the parachute canopy that came down on top of me, and more.........
"So what do I do?"
"Just fly the plane!"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What about the training scenario for the original design intent? 20,000 feet and holding, then a quick turn. AoA hits the trigger value and I get a bit of nose down trim. Not the big change that the ET and Lion folks saw. And I realize I am pulling back harder that I need to.
Training for the ET and Lion scenarios should be a no-brainer. Stay slow, use manual electric trim, and then turn off the electric trim motor. Oh, wait! Use the wheel doofer on the center pedestal for pitch trim, Gums! No problem. But the nightmare scenario is the birdstrike a few miles on base leg or final and flaps are not down. Ooooppps. AoA gone and MCAS cranks in a gob of nose down trim.
Boeing needs to look at history and the Electra. The Comet episode is another one. Electra showed that it might cost a bit up front, but will pay off down the road. When Electra had the problem, the pure jets were coming along fine and some fans were starting to show up. That is not the case with MAX. So Lockheed moved on and fixed the aero/structural problem. No more big sales except to the ASW community with the P-3. Boeing is not in the same financial or technology environment as Lockheed was back in the 60's. But spending a lotta money up front to satisfy the FAR requirement sure seems cheaper than what is hapening already and what is to come.
Gums opines...