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Old December 23rd, 2019, 03:29 AM posted to soc.culture.china,talk.politics.misc,rec.travel.air,rec.aviation,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
PhantomView
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Default Many ex-pat pilots are out of work in China because of MAX 737

On Sun, 22 Dec 2019 09:45:32 -0600, "Byker" wrote:

"PhantomView" wrote in message
.. .

On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 12:05:37 -0600, "Byker" wrote:

The Ethiopian plane was also piloted by foreign nationals who spoke
English as a second language. Why is it that there were no Max crashes
involving U.S. airlines in the prior 18 months?


I think Boeing may have had a 'cultural bias' built into
its design and instruction manual - one that put non-
english-speakers at a disadvantage. The fatal flaw
was hard to understand in and of itself, requiring some
counter-intuitive corrective measures. By the time the
foreign pilots could "think like an American" it was too
late.

It was a "smartplane" feature ... but implemented VERY
badly. No automated system should EVER fight the
pilot. It would be like an automotive cruise control applying
more throttle when you hit the brakes. The instant the
pilot put hands on the wheel the anti-stall feature should
have cut off entirely.


It's just the latest in a series of embarrassing (and often fatal) results
whenever a "new and improved" model is put on the market, like British
Midlands flight 92 ("Do I shut down the left or right engine?"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoUPZ_KJrWc

Also: "Airbus is ready for pilotless jets - are you?"
Nope: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-airbus...ess-jets-.html

What happens when automation goes psycho:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_72

https://www.internetvictory.org/qant...isaster-qf-72/

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...c252ae2168b327



I do wonder though, if the plane had been completely automatic
would there have been an issue ? In this particular case, I would
say "probably yes" because the anti-stall system engaged far
too near the ground. Give its way, the flight path would have been
"corrected" about 1000 feet underground. The pilots knew there
was not a real problem, knew what to do, but the automation
fought them to the end.

Likely there were a lot MORE screwups in the software, the
reason it is taking so long to get the planes re-certified.
Software, especially "intelligent" software, can be very hard
to de-bug ... but Boeing wanted to start selling planes RIGHT
NOW. I await some whistleblowers to come out and claim
their serious concerns were ignored so Boeing could rush
the plane to the market.

For the near future, IMHO there should be NO software in
these planes that can in any way affect its flight systems.
Warnings, maybe suggestions, yes - but let the humans
do the actual flying. Leave it at the old-fashioned "hold
course/speed/altitude" auto-pilot systems ... they work.



I do recall the peas always tasted of aluminum ...)


No doubt the Millennials' parents remember what
happened when they tried to microwave them ;-)


OOOH-Yea ! :-)

Some folks popped the original "Jiffy Pop" things in
there - aluminum pan covered by aluminum foil ....

Nowadays the successors come in hard plastic trays.
The peas no longer taste like aluminum. Do not have
much taste at all actually.

Oh, for funzies, put one of those empty trays in the
microwave and plop a CD or DVD disk on top,
recording side up. Then hit the power for about three
seconds and no more. The result is actually rather
beautiful, artistic, a "frozen lightning" effect.