Originally Posted by
GlueBall
Without having to THINK, an experienced captain with sufficient manual flying skills would not need to know if MCAS, ordinary runaway stab trim or ambiguous autopilot stab trim inputs were causing the uncommanded nose-down trim. Such trim anomaly at low altitude would automatically trigger a self-preserving INSTINCTIVE response of stopping the trim-in-motion forward moving stabilizer wheel either with his knee, right thigh or right hand and simultaneously ordering the F/O to cut off the electric stab trim switches, or doing that by himself, while simultaneously clicking off the A/P and A/T.
Have you ever flown a 737?
The stabilizer manual trim wheels rotate at a rapid rate when there is a runaway stab condition. I doubt a knee or hand would be able to hold the stab trim wheel. Moreover, there isn't really a sufficient gap between the pedastal and the wheels to get any grip on the wheel. Most certainly a pilot could get a severe hand injury in trying to hold the wheel, without using the handles which are folded into a section of the wheel (s).