[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Dowly

You have a AND (=Aircraft Nose Down) trim, reducing power would make it worse which in turn would make the pilot in charge to have to pull back on the yoke even more. The video also does not show all the other crap the Ethiopian pilots had to deal with. Crap like yoke shaker (stall), over speed warning etc. Contradictory warnings.

With nose trimmed down the plane accelerates from gravity. The proper thing to do is reduce throttle to keep speeds from destroying the airframe.

Originally Posted by Dowly

Also, to address what RR said elsewhere about MCAS not being a band aid; it absolutely is. The MAX wouldn't have gotten certification without MCAS.

Absolutely false. In fact, Mentour Pilot says that pilots have flown the 737 MAX with MCAS turned completely off and had difficulty distinguishing the difference. It seems that MCAS, meant to make subtle differences in handling to produce a duplicate of the feel of other 737s was overpowered, but it's a catch 22 situation. Remove the pilot and the automation crashes the plane. Remove the automation and the pilot crashes the plane. In both situations, zealots with rabies pursue Boeing with sharp instruments aiming to dismember them. Perhaps we need to simply outlaw all forms of air transport.

Originally Posted by Dowly

EDIT:@2:09 They start to simulate MCAS pulling the nose down. Mentour Pilot is a 737NG pilot, so the simulator is probably also a 737NG one.
EDIT2: To further elaborate; the first downward trim is a run away stabilisator, the manual trim is to simulate the MCAS behaviour.
Unfortunately I've not the full video.

You mean the video that Mentour Pilot pulled because it was wrong, morally and factually? Yes, that one. As Mentour Pilot said explicitly, the video was in error. it was wrong, it was baseless speculation in the face of facts in contradiction.

But far from the situation of a "crippled plane" that "couldn't fly without MCAS" it appears our real situation is quite different: an MCAS system meant to intruduce subtle changes to the feel of the aircraft, perfectly able to fly safely without it, but MCAS being far more powerful then it needs to be. What kind of scenario is it when MCAS gives full down elevator trim to achieve a similar feel to other 737s. That makesanosensa at all. MCAS should shake the stick to alert the pilots and that's about it. Maybe two units of down trim maximum, with an electric trim button contradicting the MCAS adjustment turning MCAS completely off for the rest of the flight.

Remember: the only facts we have are in the preliminary accident report. You Tube videos, simulator runs, anything not directly dependent on that preliminary accident report are speculation only and have no force of reality.

I predict that MCAS will have its fangs pulled, pilots all over the world will be called upon to evaluate the flying characteristics of the 737 Max and this plane will have a long, respected and safe rest of production for many years.