3 ms·
> They should have designed the MCAS system to recognize when the pilot was fighting it and to disable itself. Well "fighting" sort of begs the question, but t
by losvedir 8y ago
> They should have designed the MCAS system to recognize when the pilot was fighting it and to disable itself.
Well "fighting" sort of begs the question, but the MCAS system was by design supposed to only activate in tandem with a pilot's actions, so it can't really work like an autopilot. It supplied stabilizer trim while the pilot was controlling the plane in order to make the ascent feel the same as the older 737's, since the different engine position on the Max 8 would otherwise make it behave differently.
- briatx 8y ago> Well "fighting" sort of begs the question For instance, if the computer is attempting to pitch the plane down, while the pilot has the yoke all the way back. It should be possible to detect without too much mind reading.
- nas 8y agoThere is a large trim wheel (beside the pilot, about 10" in diameter) that the pilot can see turning if the system is automatically trimming. It is annoying how much speculation and misunderstanding is going on regarding that system. It might be a factor in the two crashed planes but we don't that yet.
- CydeWeys 8y agoIt seems the issue is that the AoA indicator (no redundancies!) is less reliable than the actual human pilot, and thus should not be overriding the human pilot when the human thinks things are going normally (because they are) but the AoA sensor is going all funky.