4 ms·
Just to explain a bit more: It uses the main pilot side AOA sensor, and pilots switch seats every flight.
by 6nf 8y ago
Just to explain a bit more: It uses the main pilot side AOA sensor, and pilots switch seats every flight.
- amelius 8y agoSo switching seats during the flight would have solved the problem?
- philpem 8y agoThat sounds so unlikely that most people would dismiss it as silly... I'm not a pilot, but if the controls are linked -- why would the plane need to know where the pilot is sitting (or even have a switch for it)? (Any 747 pilots reading? Can you please fill in the gaps for me?)
- cjbprime 8y agoNot a pilot either. Perhaps to show different information to the pilot flying vs. assisting? E.g. only the pilot assisting needs to see checklists?
- tellak 8y agoNot a 747 pilot (not sure why that matters here)... but a pilot. The flight positions are equal. The plane is designed to be flown the same from either flight position and this is routinely done. The guy saying otherwise is talking out their ass.
- philpem 8y agoThanks for the details :) I said 747 because I was thinking Boeing at the time, and that was the first of their aircraft I could think of! I was also thinking something smaller like a Cessna might not have the same setup because they're used for very different things (the air travel equivalent of a bus vs. a car).
- bronco21016 8y agoI can’t speak to foreign operators but in the US that most certainly does not happen. The captain flies in the left seat and the first officer flies in the right seat. Turns are taken on who is flying and the automation is selected to the side of whichever pilot is deemed the pilot flying.
- 6nf 8y ago> Turns are taken on who is flying That's what I meant yes
- l31g 8y agoEach side of the airplane has a set of sensors. The ones on the left (while sitting on the plate) are named Captain <sensor_name> and the ones on the right are named First-Officer (F/O) <sensor_name>. The MCAS software would switch from Captain AoA vane to F/O AoA vane between flights. The location where the pilots are sitting doesn’t affect how the airplane is flying itself. The person flying the plane can be sitting on either of the two seats, but the most senior pilot usually sits on the left.
- chipsa 8y agoIt's not that the MCAS software would switch. It's that the sensors feed into two different flight control computers (Captain and F/O). And which FCC is primary would switch after each flight. Both FCCs run the same software, but with different inputs from the different sensors.
- cjbprime 8y agoDoes it switch automatically after each landing somehow, or because the pilots tell the plane which FCC is going to be primary for the flight?