For those interested in the recent spate of accidents involving Boeing's
> newest 737 variant, the real story of what is going on behind the
> scenes is
> largely not being reported.
>
> It was interesting to note that President Trump alluded to the problem
> in a
> round about way, but unless you are a pilot you probably missed the point.
> In essence, President Trump was saying that technology is a poor
> substitute
> for a qualified pilot in command.
>
> One of the most basic skills a pilot learns from day one is energy
> management of the airplane. If the plane is too slow, it will literally
> drop from the sky. Too fast and the wings/airframe can come apart with
> disastrous consequences.
>
> In the history of commercial aviation in the US and western countries, the
> first crop of pilots to enter commercial service were the post world war
> two pilots. Those guys were the real deal and not only hand flew
> almost all
> of their hours but also in some of the most demanding conditions. The
> second wave were the airport kids who just fell in love with the idea of
> being a pilot and scrimped and saved to take lessons. Both categories of
> pilots were skilled in the art of aviation.
>
> With the explosion of second and third world travel, there were not even
> close to the amount of skilled pilots to fly the thousands of new
> generation planes coming out of airbus and boeing. Unline Cathay
> Pacific, a
> Hong Kong airline that was almost exclusively piloted by british pilots,
> the new asian airlines wanted asian pilots to man the cockpits...often
> with
> disasterous results. Asiana flight 214 crashed in SFO in 2014 because the
> pilots did not know how to hand fly the plane when the ground based
> approach ILS was out of service.
>
> Boeing, the FAA and worldwide aviation agencies track not only accidents,
> but also INCIDENTS…crap that was going sideways but didnt result in a
> crash. The number of unqualified pilots from asia and africa was plain to
> see in the number of errors being committed on a daily basis.
>
> To make a long story short, airbus saw this eventuality decades ago and
> implemented automatic safety systems in anticipation of unqualified
> aircrews. Boeing resisted for a lot of very good reasons...but after the
> Asiana crash, the chinese government basically told Boeing to
> "idiot-proof"
> the 737 as china would end up being the biggest purchaser of that model.
> Since Boeing had opted not to add automated control systems (which often
> override pilots inputs) they were forced to apply a band-aid solution
> which, unfortunately was not done well. Only one sensor was driving some
> very complicated algos which worked against the pilots decision making
> inputs.
>
> The fact that the asian and african pilots were essentially unqualified is
> highly embarrassing to the respective governments and boeing kept it
> quiet.
> When ALPA, the pilots union reps found the system was added without
> informing the pilots, they went insane...
>
> However, what they DON'T know, is that the MCAS system can be enabled or
> disabled per plane, and can be done remotely on a real time basis via
> uplink. The US airlines management, due to the superior training and
> piloting skills opted NOT to activate MCAR...but the asian/african
> carriers
> DID. That is why most of the “ crappy" airlines self grounded while
> all the
> major US airlines are still flying without a problem.
>
> Its a very PC issue, but basically comes down to 30-40% of the global
> pilot
> population are really not qualified to be pilots, but more just data input
> managers.
>
> Additional comments. Friends who will remain annomous (by initials only),
> long ago confirmend the above. One (IM) who worked under a Boeing contract
> giving simulator training South Koreans, just shook his head when he
> related tales of cockpit coordination. It was a South Korean flight 007, a
> Boeing 747, killing 269 persons, that the Russians shot down because of a
> one digit error entered into the INS system. For a lenghtly, but
> questionable analysis see:
>
>
Study Says Korean Airliner Was on Its Intended Course When Downed in '83
>
>
> Another (BH) who retired from Delta a dozen years ago once told me he
> would
> never allow his family to fly on a foreign air carrier. There are a few
> exceptions to that, I'm sure. We are flying COPA in a coyple weeks, they
> have had only one fatal accident back in the 1990's, the result of an
> instrument failure.
>
> The old addage still applies: *To make things on the ground appear
> smaller,
> pull back. To make things on the ground appear larger, keep pulling
> back!!*
>
And as a pilot I will add my two cents worth "maintain thy altitude and airspeed lest the ground fly up and smyth thee".
I also want to add the Herman who sent this to me was also a crop duster as I was, you really learn to fly when you are two feet off the ground and dodging trees and power lines.
Nick