A question on B737 manual reversion forces
Volume 2 of the FCOM, chapter 8 Flight Controls says "With total hydraulic power failure the ailerons can be mechanically positioned by rotating the pilot's control wheels. Control forces are higher due to friction and aerodynamic loads"
During my type rating on the 737-200 and after the initial simulator training, a Boeing instructor turned off all hydraulic pumps in actual flight to allow me to get the feel of manual reversion. Of course, hydraulic power was reinstated for the landing. Although it was many years ago, I recall the control forces were high but the aircraft quite flyable.
Since then I have flown many manual reversion approaches and landings in simulators with no serious difficulty. More recently I flew a 737-300 simulator where the control wheel force to use the ailerons on manual was beyond my physical capacity to turn the control wheel more than 20 degrees left or right. It was well nigh impossible to fly an ILS. I don't recall the real aircraft being anything like that which I experienced in the simulator. The stick force in the elevators of the simulator on manual reversion were high as expected but flyable. But the ailerons were bad news.
Very few Boeing 737 pilots would have flown manual reversion in the real aircraft so they would have no experience except in a simulator and that is not often anyway. It then becomes a subjective assessment. It should not require a pilot's full strength to apply the ailerons on a manual reversion. I am interested if other pilots have found marked variation in other 737 simulators in aileron stick forces need to successfully complete a manual reversion approach. For example should you be able to apply full control wheel aileron in manual reversion if required or is that impossible due to design limitations without hydraulic assist?
Another pilot had a go at the same simulator I had trouble with and needed his full arm strength to turn the wheel more than 20 degrees but he did it and was stuffed afterwards! In my view it wasn't flyable.