Runaway Stabilizer!! How to stop MCAS.

Mentour Pilot · 421K views · 2019 · 22:58

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Aviation & aerospace engineeringexplainerdated

Why Hacker News recommends it

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.

What it is

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.

Recommended by 7 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2019 to 2022.

What Hacker News said

Strong rec exabrial · 2019-03 · on “Where Boeing’s 737 Max Planes Go When They’re Grounded”

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

Strong rec Declanomous · 2019-03 · on “No call for simulators in new Boeing 737 Max training proposals”

I'd highly recommend anyone who wants to see what an MCAS runaway looks like and the steps needed to correct it watch the following video by Mentour Pilot.[1] He's a 737 pilot for a European budget carrier, and I believe he is qualified to certify other pilots. In the video he goes over what an MCAS failure/runaway stabilizer would feel like to the pilots, the troubleshooting steps, and at the end of the video he shows a simulated runaway MCAS failure in a sim. He also has a few other videos on the MCAS accidents. I'd highly recommend watching all of them; he does a very good job at putting everything into perspective in a way that the news does not. [1] [this video]

Strong rec pas · 2019-04 · on ““I worked at Boeing for about 1.5 years in the 2008-9 time period””

> 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: [this 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

Strong rec Zancarius · 2019-05 · on “Long Before Boeing 737 Max Crash, Ethiopian Air Pilot Warned of Dangers”

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. T

Recommends sundvor · 2019-04 · on “Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 pilots 'could not stop nosedive'”

Not that video, but at least it shows the automatic trim system in action - and is rather educational: [LINK] . Even better: [this video]

Recommends proctor · 2019-04 · on “Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX Investigation Preliminary Report”

this video[0] from "mentour pilot" on youtube explains the stabilizer system quite well. it seems the trim wheels are connected manually to the trim mechanism in the back, but when the trim stabilizers are in an extreme position the wind loading on them makes it very hard/impossible to rotate the trim wheels manually. from what i understand, one way to relieve/lessen the wind loading so that the manual wheels can be used again is to (in the case of trim down) dive the plane. this would lessen the wind loading on the stabilizer and allow the manual wheels to move again. but you would need "room" to dive, something they did not have in this case. [0] [this video]

Recommends janoc · 2019-05 · on “Ethiopian Max Crash Simulator Scenario Stuns Pilots”

Well, the "Stabilizer wheel - grasp and hold" item of the procedure doesn't necessarily mean the crew will be able to override it. That's the last ditch option on the checklist, when everything else has failed, even turning the motors off (there could be e.g. a short circuit powering the motor). There is no clutch on the 737, AFAIK, because the forces are such that it wouldn't work. Here is a good video by an actual 737 captain explaining how the runaway stab trim procedure works and what you have to do. [this video] And this simulator video shows both how the 737 horizontal stabilizer is controlled and what kind of forces are on the trim wheel and control column when severely out of trim: [LINK]

Cites weaksauce · 2019-04 · on “Boeing delays 737 MAX software fix delivery”

They had 40 seconds to avert the accident from what I read. the memory items for runaway trim take about 1 minute in a relatively calm simulator with a professional 37 pilot to get to that point where they flip the switch[0]. They still had an incorrectly trimmed aircraft when they got to that point. also of note was that the pilots in the sim were at 3000' AGL where the other ones that crashed were at about 1000' AGL. 0. [this video]