FAA chief meets Boeing officials, tries out Max simulator
Sep. 19, 2019 at 3:28 pm Updated Sep. 19, 2019 at 6:04 p
DALLAS (AP) — The chief of the Federal Aviation Administration tested the Boeing 737 Max in a flight simulator Thursday, but the FAA declined to say how its updated anti-stall software performed.
New FAA chief Stephen Dickson is AF grad flew f-15 , then for Delta etc
Dickson, a former Air Force fighter pilot who flew earlier versions of the 737 during a long career at Delta Air Lines, had two sessions in a flight simulator to test changes Boeing has made to MCAS — making it less powerful and easier for pilots to control. In the first session, he practiced simulations of normal flights.
“It handles like a 737,” he told The Associated Press after an initial simulator run replicating normal flight conditions. “The airplane handles very well from everything I can tell.”
Later Dickson tested situations in which MCAS kicked in and pushed the nose down, but the FAA declined to make Dickson available for comment on that simulation.
Dickson said he will fly a Max jet — not just a simulator — before the plane is ungrounded.