Originally Posted by
Someone Somewhere
They removed the separate cutoff switches for manual and automatic electric trim (so pilots could not use the thumb switches to get the aircraft back in trim if the computers got it out of trim)
But Why, Mr. Boeing (uh, McDonnell)? What did that improve or solve?
Boeing's response was it doesn't matter because the trim runaway procedure is turn off both switches together. But wasn't the reason for the original 2 switches that the pilots can at least try to use a simple motor to fix the trim without going straight to pointing the plane down to trim it up? When it could be just a command problem rather than a control problem?
Didn't one of the Max8 crash crews try turning the switches back on? And if they could have used just one without it force-pairing the functions, they would have saved the plane?
(somewhere said if they'd held the yoke trim switch all the way it would eventually have trimmed up even with MCAS and both cutoff switches on, but I assume not as quickly as earlier 737s?)
How I miss the simple time of travel by hot air balloons, you couldn't control the direction but at least the altitude... except when the vent stuck open... or something caught fire... birdstrike? Well... OK, I prefer a 737. But fix it!