Originally Posted by
Tomaski
The crews were handed a very challenging malfunction, but it needs to be stated again that one does not trim by sight. A pilot trims by FEEL. If the controls FEEL heavy for the established pitch and power, then the pilot uses the yoke switch to trim off the pressures. The 737 requires a lot of trim inputs during the takeoff and clean up phase so yes the trim wheel is moving around a lot. The first indication that something is wrong would probably be that you are trimming, particularly in one direction, a lot more than you are used to doing. That evaluation depends on knowing what is normal and knowing what is normal depends on having sufficient experience hand-flying through the takeoff and clean up phase.
I had the opportunity to teach or refresh aerobatics to a number of very experienced line and military pilots.
When confronted with an unexpected aircraft behaviour, rotations, gees, each and every pilot - except a very few advanced aerobatics pilots - fails to react the way you seem to infer.
They invariably forget about managing throttles, stick forces etc.
For instance, when the aircraft suddenly noses down into a bunt, nothing is "as usual", especially the feel of the controls, and the last thing you are expected to do is reflect, compare, and trim.
Add to that the instructor blaring things and spurious warnings over the intercom, and tunnel vision and disorientation invariably takes place, even with experienced pilots.
How do you compare with the "usual" feel of the yoke when the stick shaker activates and the aircraft is accelerating at low altitude ?
Has anyone on this forum tried it in the sim ?
So what you propose may well be ok in the calm environment of a single failure session in the sim, but in real life in a really misbehaving aircraft with lots of alarms and stick shaker, it might be quite different, whatever your experience.