OT: General OT MEGATHREAD (No Politics) - Read OP before posting

[CapitalsCupReality]

Ethiopian air pilots, ZERO simulator time for the 737. Brilliant.

 

[RandyHolt]

Ethiopian air pilots, ZERO simulator time for the 737. Brilliant.

I wonder if reusing the same air frame for 50+ years Hence 737... makes airlines and pilots think training is unneeded. Oh, its a 737.... everyone knows it inside out.

Inexcusable, that he had no time. But at the same time, its inexcusable that Boeing didn't tell pilots that MCAS was locked and loaded, not even a mention of MCAS in the training manual. That lack of detail can make someone think simulator time is not needed. Nothing new in here... Yes, yes there was, but oops, it was omitted.

I wonder how much the simulator would have helped for this specific issue. For without the simulator having an angle of attack sensor failure, I am not sure pilots would have stumbled upon MCAS forcing a steep dive of 10 degrees every minute.

Logic would say its safe to assume the simulator program incorporated MCAS, and likely simulates a failure of the lone AOA sensor, but assumption is the mother of all f*** ups.

Did Boeing write the simulator program? If so, don't forget, Boeing didn't want the pilots to know about MCAS (to prevent confusion), so why would they put it in the simulator if it wasn't even in the training manual. Or, perhaps they minimized how often the simulator made calls to it. The most likely to happen failure, was probably what the simulator focuses on most. Smoker in the lavatory, blown tire on landing... yawn. Can I go home now?

The simulator should focus heavily on new systems added to old air frames.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

The write up (and video) I saw said it was 2 simple switches that turned off the MCAS. That a passenger pilot saved the same flight from crashing the day before is terrifying. They had no clue.

Others properly trained seem to know about it. Plenty of blame to go around for sure.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

 

[RandyHolt]

The zoning for Houston reminds me of first playing Sim City with no clue on how best to zone.

 

[usiel]

Our fellow caps fans from around the globe likely don't know about this chemical plant fire happening in Texas (of course)...

I wonder where and when that plume of toxic smoke will inevitably end up fully mixed with the air some poor souls will have to breathe. I guess it will all eventually get washed out when it mixes with rain... not sure who is in charge of toxic cloud management however.... IIIRC most of our air pollution ends up in Sweden. Who wants xylene, naptha and pyrolysis?

The nearest air quality sensor to Deer Park is offline

ArcGIS Web Application

Brutal. I've actually worked at ESRI for 18 years.

 

[Raikkonen]

Boeing didn't force any training from foreign pilots saying it's good enough to just observe new features via text/pics/whatever (takes about an hour, mind you).
As far as I understand there was no simulator with MCAS integrated either.

Some countries received different info via their certification groups (for example, Brazil IIRC). So they (Brazilians) got different info from Boeing (??? maybe got to conclusions themselves but doubtful) and issued some recommendations which wasn't the case for most other countries including Indonesia and Ethiopia.

One way or another, management wanted this plane to be profitable and the rest wasn't considered as much.

Anything to declare? Not buying tickets for any air transport for foreseeable future.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Boeing didn't force any training from foreign pilots saying it's good enough to just observe new features via text/pics/whatever (takes about an hour, mind you).
As far as I understand there was no simulator with MCAS integrated either.

Some countries received different info via their certification groups (for example, Brazil IIRC). So they (Brazilians) got different info from Boeing (??? maybe got to conclusions themselves but doubtful) and issued some recommendations which wasn't the case for most other countries including Indonesia and Ethiopia.

One way or another, management wanted this plane to be profitable and the rest wasn't considered as much.

Anything to declare? Not buying tickets for any air transport for foreseeable future.

Not sure about that, but I saw a TV broadcast with a pilot in the simulator demonstrating the two side by side switches to flip that disables the MCAS.

 

[Raikkonen]

Not sure about that, but I saw a TV broadcast with a pilot in the simulator demonstrating the two side by side switches to flip that disables the MCAS.

That's called like stab trim cut out. You can manually stop (disable) the electric system which trims stabilizer and do it manually with you hands (which is much less effective and could still be not enough in some conditions). I mean even when MCAS is disabled you can get into situation where stabilizer should be quickly adjusted and the manual way is too slow. Which is a danger too.

When MCAS was designed (during certification) it was meant to move stabilizer 4x slower. They got the certificate and changed the speed to move it 2,5 degree instead of 0,6 and told no one. So now when it does something it does that fast. And if pilots don't recognize it in time - it's too late (if we are talking low altitudes where all problems occured so far).

Engines are powerful, take off, pilot loses control for a bit - and the nose goes up. MCAS gets it down... And it should be ok.
In reality it did damage with wrong data sending planes down too quickly to recover (I guess).

That's what I gathered from forums at least

BUT! Getting back to simulators. Those switches are present in all versions and used for cutting it out for so called "runaway stabilizer" procedure which is an old problem of those planes. Every simulator has those but it doesn't mean MCAS was installed. What you saw was just standard thing. And all problems lie inside its computer systems (talking about MAX vs older versions of 737).

PS: I'm not an expert, but people on avia forums in Russia came to those conclusions almost universally.

 

[RandyHolt]

I have posted some questions on weather message boards about where the toxic plume may end up. No one dared answer me. My feeling is that if they can predict a storm in 7 days, why can't they predict where this black cloud gets pushed. I guess without a model to assist, they are left guessing. Or, the answer is simple. Houston is going to be engulfed in Benzene. I just found this:

"Now that the four-day fire is out at a Houston-area chemical storage complex, the real danger has emerged. Cancer-causing toxins are wafting across the eastern suburbs of the fourth-largest U.S. city, shutting roads, schools and industrial plants, and disrupting everyday life for tens of thousands of people."

The story was never the fire IMO. Maybe I should apply for a job at FEMA.

This story is very buried in the main stream media. Speaking of streams. More bad news. Galveston Bay wildlife may get crushed.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

They didn’t buy the DLC: feature that could’ve prevented 737 crashes was sold as an option


Intersting info for being a “hobbyist” RAIK, thanks.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

Seems interesting. Might be a perfect date night movie.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Seems interesting. Might be a perfect date night movie.

looks hilarious....a take off of what they did in Hot Tub Time Machine 1 or 2...cant recall....

 

[hb12xchamps]

I have posted some questions on weather message boards about where the toxic plume may end up. No one dared answer me. My feeling is that if they can predict a storm in 7 days, why can't they predict where this black cloud gets pushed. I guess without a model to assist, they are left guessing. Or, the answer is simple. Houston is going to be engulfed in Benzene. I just found this:

"Now that the four-day fire is out at a Houston-area chemical storage complex, the real danger has emerged. Cancer-causing toxins are wafting across the eastern suburbs of the fourth-largest U.S. city, shutting roads, schools and industrial plants, and disrupting everyday life for tens of thousands of people."

The story was never the fire IMO. Maybe I should apply for a job at FEMA.

This story is very buried in the main stream media. Speaking of streams. More bad news. Galveston Bay wildlife may get crushed.

They’ll sweep it under the rug just like they do with Florida and their Red Tide problem that never gained attention outside of social media postings

 

[RandyHolt]

They’ll sweep it under the rug just like they do with Florida and their Red Tide problem that never gained attention outside of social media postings

Is Texas our most polluted state? Maybe the media is tired of that same old story.

On the EPA website, this link is buried, only seen after clicking "more News"

High levels of benzene detected at ITC fire site | US EPA

The link refers folks to a city and a county website, but it seems short sighted to think only one county will only be effected by this disaster. There was a shelter in place. Why wasn't that a headline somewhere?

Its interesting, the things that make the main stream news. Only with insider info, can one see that the powers that be, that can buy silence. I know of a drug recall that killed hundreds, yet at the time it became public, 10 people sick with Salmonella from lettuce dominated the news cycle for weeks. 0 died. The oops double dosed Digitek/Digoxin disaster never became news. Not even when it happened a 2nd time a few years later, after a cop out name change.

AAAAND there is oil in water downstream presumed headed to the Bay. Only reported by a fisherman on facebook. Yesterday, only 1 reporter on Twitter posted about the black waterway.

 

[RandyHolt]

If anyone else besides me is interested in the Deer Park fire follow Stephanie below for the only consistent coverage. She was the only person on twitter that posted anything about the disaster and she is dominating again today.

Oh by the way 2 tanks caught on fire again, a containment dike broke at some point, the mayor lied and said it takes 2-3 days to test the water which is black sludge, and a cloud of highly carcinogenic benzene gas somehow got released after the original fire was out. At least the shelter in place got lifted... heh maybe thats not a good idea just yet.

Here's your water


Here's your air
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2DKmsDWkAEYhV_.jpg

Amazing in all that horror is that the worst thing is the benzene gas which you cannot see.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

 

[kicksavedave]

I have found 4+foot long rattle snakes in my yard. I've trained my two Aussies to stay as far away from any snake as possible. But that video was nuts!

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Connor McGregor tweets out his unexpected retirement early this morning, now this releases....


Irish Police Investigating Conor McGregor Over Sex Assault Accusation — The New York Times

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

 

[kicksavedave]

Pretty cool. Interesting that, in some southern parts of Chile, if you look to the West, and follow it all the way, you eventually see, Chile. Or in Argentina, if you are on a tall mountain if you look East you see Chile, and look back over your shoulder you see, Argentina again.

All this assumes the Earth is both round and flat at the same time

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

Pretty tight.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Insane. How long does that take?