Captain™

Its been 4 months, any pilots join the CR?

Captain™

Having 10,000 hours of flight experience in Cessna 172’s would not have helped them.

That is not necessarily true. You learn many things from flying small planes that is very helpful when transferring to the big jets. One thing that all pilots are taught, no matter the type of plane, is if there is any malfunction of any electrical system, then turn it off and hand fly the rest of the way. Another thing learnt, is to make critical decisions in seconds. ATC, the weather, or the airplane itself can throw curveballs at the pilot that require instant responses.
A pilot with a thousand hours in any type of plane, is better prepared to react correctly than a pilot with 250 hours.

Think about it. The MCAS system malfunctioned twice in 6 months. Why did it only malfunction now? The 737 Max has been around for a few years already with no problems.

The truth is, is that the MCAS malfunctioned many times. Many American pilots reported experiencing the exact same events that the two accident flights experienced. The difference is that each time it happened, pilots just turned off the electrical trim and it stopped. the two accident flights, the pilots tried to override MCAS by manually trimming up. This didn’t work, yet they continued fighting it all the way down. If they would have just flipped the right switches, they never would have crashed.

If the pilots would have been more experienced, than maybe they would have responded correctly.

Captain™

The mods accidentally approved my posts out of order. The correct order is #1743633 then #1743636 then #1743642 then #1743643.
Continuation from post #1743642.

A big factor in both crashes was pilot experience, or rather, lack of it.
America and Europe have different requirements to become an airline pilot. In Europe, one only needs a commercial certificate which consists of at least 250 hours of flight time. Then you need to get a rating for the plane you fly and now you are ready to fly for an airline.

In America, you need an airline license which consists of 1500 hours of flight time. This means that any pilot flying for an American airline, has almost 5 times more experience than their European counterparts.

Captain™

Their is a big difference between Airbus and Boeing. Airbus uses fly-by-wire, in which everything is controlled by wires. When the pilot moves the stick , a computer tells the ailerons and elevator how much to move. This enables Airbus to use the side-stick, which takes up very little space.
Boeing only uses hydraulics. When a pilot moves the yoke (not a stick), he is directly controlling the ailerons and elevators. This does take up more space, as there is a yoke in front of the pilot.
Most pilots who have flown both Airbus’s and Boeing’s say they prefer Boeing because they feel more in control. Everything is predictable, and they don’t have to worry about any electrical failures, as there are many backup hydraulic systems in case one breaks.

So when Boeing installed MCAS into the Max, it was the first fly-by-wire piece to be used in one of their planes. They decided not to tell pilots because they felt it was not necessary. If the MCAS would malfunction, it would do the same thing that an electric trim malfunction would do, force the nose down. All pilots have to do is the same thing that they do if the electrical trim malfunctions, which is, to simply turn off the electric trim.

Captain™

I will continue tomorrow, as it is getting late here and I need to get some sleep.

Captain™

@lakewhut
Whether robots are safer than humans is a big debate.
On the one hand, most plane crashes are caused by pilot error.
On the flip side, there have been many incidents in where planes would have crashed if not for the pilot thinking out of the box.

The recent helicopter crash in Manhattan is an example of a crash caused by pilot error. The pilot was not instrument rated and was not allowed to fly in limited visibility. He waited for 2 hours for the weather to clear up and in the end he went for it, causing him to crash. A drone would not have crashed in that situation.

But what would have happened to the plane by the “miracle on the Hudson” if it would not have had a pilot on board. Would it have went for the Hudson or tried to go an airport.

Pilots go through training to react correctly if the engine fails. Do you go for the highway, beach, soccer field, or any other place. it is dependent on many variables, and usually just common sense. If there is traffic on the highway, don’t land there. If there are kids playing ball on a field, don’t land there.

Each case is different, and the big question is, are people ready to put there lives in the hands of a drone that will only do what its programmed to do?

Captain™