MAX’s Return Delayed by FAA Reevaluation of 737 Safety Procedures
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I do think local media would have noticed that many fights around Renton. I'm pretty sure I saw one flight test and it was quite distinctive, no way of mistaking it for a regular flight. (It is quite impressive to see a commercial airliner pretending that it is a YAK-3 at an airshow, must have been fun for the pilots!)
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By all reports, Boeing thinks the problems are fixed. Hence the absence of recent test flights. The trick now is to get most if not all regulators aboard and in agreement with the proposed fixes.
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Glad you brought that up as I was looking at the quoted hours. A check on the weather since October (Seattle had a dry November with foggy mornings) would also show that most flight hours couldn't have been completed in that time. Production flight test do not fly at night BTW.
https://thewofa.com/2019/12/b737-max...e6019a0d26c8b0
"Boeing says the approval delays by regulators could cause the manufacturer to suspend the production of the MAX jets."
"Boeing says the approval delays by regulators could cause the manufacturer to suspend the production of the MAX jets."
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Interesting to note the PR judo going on here, world class in that department at least. Boeing announces that the regulators will approve the fix by December, a timeline that could not legally have been based on anything other than hope. (The implication to the stockholders was that they had an inside line to the FAA.) The FAA denied that there was any such timeline. Now Boeing is blaming the potential revenue hit on "delays by regulators." Nicely done, Boeing PR.
Interesting to note the PR judo going on here, world class in that department at least. Boeing announces that the regulators will approve the fix by December, a timeline that could not legally have been based on anything other than hope. (The implication to the stockholders was that they had an inside line to the FAA.) The FAA denied that there was any such timeline. Now Boeing is blaming the potential revenue hit on "delays by regulators." Nicely done, Boeing PR.
Interesting to note the PR judo going on here, world class in that department at least. Boeing announces that the regulators will approve the fix by December, a timeline that could not legally have been based on anything other than hope. (The implication to the stockholders was that they had an inside line to the FAA.) The FAA denied that there was any such timeline. Now Boeing is blaming the potential revenue hit on "delays by regulators." Nicely done, Boeing PR.
p.s. in re Warne, Muralitharan says "Hi"
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The test flights are out of KBFI or KPAE. They either head out over the Pacific about 50 miles off the coast or else to an area just west of Moses Lake. They use the call sign Boeing 1, and on flightaware.com as BOE1.
The aircraft I see on FR occasionally got from renton west to LaPush, then to Moses Lake..simple ferry flights to storage.
Strikes me as quite scary for Boeing shareholders that the Company is desperate enough to take an antagonistic line towards the lead regulator (rather than the collaborative approach previously presented).
One wonders if Boeing is counting simulator flight hours in that flight hours number. Given the amount of PR spin in the last 10 months, I wouldn't be surprised.
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One wonders if Boeing is counting simulator flight hours in that flight hours number. Given the amount of PR spin in the last 10 months, I wouldn't be surprised.
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Interesting to note the PR judo going on here, world class in that department at least. Boeing announces that the regulators will approve the fix by December, a timeline that could not legally have been based on anything other than hope. (The implication to the stockholders was that they had an inside line to the FAA.) The FAA denied that there was any such timeline. Now Boeing is blaming the potential revenue hit on "delays by regulators." Nicely done, Boeing PR.
FAA just announced 737 Max cert NOT done until 2020...
Boeing 737 MAX certification to extend into 2020, FAA chief says
By
Ryan Beene
BloombergBoeing’s 737 MAX certification, needed to end the jet’s nine-month worldwide grounding by regulators, will extend into 2020, the top U.S. aviation regulator said Wednesday.
Federal Aviation Administration chief Stephen Dickson said that the plane, which has been grounded worldwide since March, will not be certified to fly this year, dashing Boeing’s hopes of getting the popular family of planes back in the air in 2019.
“If you do the math, it’s going to extend into 2020,” Dickson told CNBC Wednesday before he is expected to testify before a congressional panel. “We’re going to do it diligently because safety is absolutely our priority with this airplane.”
--- goes on
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Fit to hit shan on FAA view of MAX - this extract from WSJ this am says it all - the article is longer
By Andy Pasztor and
Andrew Tangel
Dec. 11, 2019 8:00 am ET
U.S. regulators decided to allow the 737 MAX jet to keep flying after its first fatal crash last fall, despite their own analysis indicating it could become one of the most accident-prone airliners in decades without design changes.
The November 2018 internal Federal Aviation Administration analysis, expected to be released during a House committee hearing Wednesday, reveals that without agency intervention, the MAX could have averaged one fatal crash about every two or three years, according to industry officials and regulators. That amounts to a substantially greater safety risk than either Boeing Co. or the agency indicated publicly at the time.....
Andrew Tangel
Dec. 11, 2019 8:00 am ET
U.S. regulators decided to allow the 737 MAX jet to keep flying after its first fatal crash last fall, despite their own analysis indicating it could become one of the most accident-prone airliners in decades without design changes.
The November 2018 internal Federal Aviation Administration analysis, expected to be released during a House committee hearing Wednesday, reveals that without agency intervention, the MAX could have averaged one fatal crash about every two or three years, according to industry officials and regulators. That amounts to a substantially greater safety risk than either Boeing Co. or the agency indicated publicly at the time.....
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I can easily imagine someone who has had a briefing (but without notes given) then passing on to a third party "Boeing said they did 1850 hours of testing" and that other person thinking they meant "flight testing"
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I also wonder if this somewhat third hand information passed through hands which don't understand the difference.
I can easily imagine someone who has had a briefing (but without notes given) then passing on to a third party "Boeing said they did 1850 hours of testing" and that other person thinking they meant "flight testing"
I can easily imagine someone who has had a briefing (but without notes given) then passing on to a third party "Boeing said they did 1850 hours of testing" and that other person thinking they meant "flight testing"
By the way, here is the most complete account I could find about the visit (French only, I'm afraid)
Boeing 737 MAX et MCAS : résumé de deux jours passé au siège de Boeing à Seattle | Sécurité aérienne et peur en avion
It appears nothing new was revealed, apart from the dubious '1850' number.
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For comparison, on November 11th, they were saying "1700+"... https://www.boeing.com/737-max-updates/
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I am trying to find the source again, perhaps the Senate hearings, where actual flight test were in the 200-300 hours range, the rest were sim.
GOL MAX 8 on its way to storage at SKF San Antonio right now.
GOL MAX 8 on its way to storage at SKF San Antonio right now.
Last edited by turbidus; 11th Dec 2019 at 17:57.
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Seems like the Boeing event went down well with this reporter – see the “conclusion” below.
Translation from French by Google is unmodified here....
“Conclusion of these two days
If we consider that all the information provided to us is reliable (I dare not imagine that Boeing can try to lie hide anything), then I think we were convinced. The aircraft is ultimately not unstable and the presence of the MCAS desirable. The initial error is repaired and the pilots present, first concerned,confirmed their confidence in the plane and their willingness to take back orders at the earliest (I made an interview with the president of a Chinese pilots association , I am waiting for the validation of my images in the simulator to share them at the same time).”
Translation from French by Google is unmodified here....
“Conclusion of these two days
If we consider that all the information provided to us is reliable (I dare not imagine that Boeing can try to lie hide anything), then I think we were convinced. The aircraft is ultimately not unstable and the presence of the MCAS desirable. The initial error is repaired and the pilots present, first concerned,confirmed their confidence in the plane and their willingness to take back orders at the earliest (I made an interview with the president of a Chinese pilots association , I am waiting for the validation of my images in the simulator to share them at the same time).”