Originally Posted by
MemberBerry
Having to apply significant force to the control column to counter the out of trim stabilizer might make it difficult to use the thumb switches. For example the Ethiopian captain asked the FO to help him trim during the second MCAS activation, which many people here found puzzling. Maybe the pilot flying had to hold the control column like this:
Also, to help stall recovery, the elevator feel system makes it harder to pull the control column when the AoA is over a certain value, which could have made things even harder on the accident flights, compared to just being severely out of trim at high speed.
Why does a modern commercial jet have a flight control system that tries to replicate the behavior of a plane from the 1950's, including a control column that requires a gorilla to pull back on it in extreme flight conditions?