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Runaway Stabilizer!! How to stop MCAS.

Mentour Pilot · 421.4K views · 2019-03-22 · 22:58

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Overview

A Boeing 737 pilot explains the runaway stabilizer checklist, the procedure for stopping unwanted horizontal stabilizer movement such as an MCAS activation on the 737 MAX. He walks through the steps, the trim cutout switches and the jackscrew mechanism, and shows a simulator run including the manual trim wheel effort.

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During the 737 MAX crash coverage, HN commenters linked it as a clear, pilot-led demonstration of what an MCAS runaway looks like and how hard manual trim is to crank.

Recommended by 7 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2019–2022

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What people said

Zancarius · 2019-05 · Strong recommendation

Depends on the aircraft. Some modern jetliners are using fly-by-wire, while others have hydraulically-boosted controls. Some still rely on cable-and-pulley. Either way, as I understand, it wouldn't matter with the MCAS-related MAX aircraft crashes. The elevator trim is able to move the entire elevator (literally, the entire elevator moves in response to the jackscrew controlled by the trim system) to such an extent that, depending on CG, airspeed, and other factors, it cannot be overpowered by moving the control surface to its full deflection. So whether or not the MAX had boosted controls or fly-by-wire probably wouldn't have mattered in the case the aircraft were trimmed fully nose-down. The pilots would have been struggling to maintain control either way. That's why there's stabilizer trim cut-out switches and manual trim. I'd highly recommend Mentour Pilot's videos on the subject, links below: Runaway Stabilizer: How to stop MCAS - [VIDEO] Boeing 737 Unable to Trim! Cockpit video (full flight sim) - [LINK] Five questions about the Boeing 737 MAX Answered - [LINK]

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pas · 2019-04 · Strong recommendation

> You probably have nothing to worry about with air travel. Well, the conclusion is already made in the statistics, and air travel is the safest, yes, but it's worrying that it's safe despite the enormous fallacies, despite the insane pressure of market forces. A very eye-opening thing is to watch what the pilots should have done: [VIDEO] Runaway stabilizer scenario has associated memory items (meaning the pilot must have the checklist committed to memory). There are big wheels that turn, with noise and a big visibility marking. This was Boeing's initial defense too, that the pilots fucked up, because disabling any electronics works the same way. (There's a cutoff switch.) So if something is doing something, shut off the power, rotate the wheels manually. And in this regard Boeing is right. Pilots decisionmaking was suboptimal. However, it is Boeing's fault that they opted for a no-training-required strategy. A similar WTF is that pilots don't keep up with the aviation industry news. How - the fuck - can you pilot a plane that you know nothing about (except that your license is valid for it)!?

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exabrial · 2019-03 · Strong recommendation

I highly recommend everyone suggestion engineering solutions to watch this video from an actual pilot performing a runaway stabilizer procedure in a 737 simulator. [VIDEO] What happened is a series of failures; this video frames it perfectly.

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Sources

Video by Mentour Pilot, played through YouTube.

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