Countries Restricting 737 MAX Flights After Second Crash

[entropy]

You forgot hottest cockpit ever designed - I won't miss it a bit. After 12 looong years moving to the 737 next month. Mercifully we don't have any MAXs.

You may have time in a Douglas product if you recognize any of these terms:

1. Sugar scoop
2. Lolly pop
3. Cash register
4. Pork chop
5. Donkey dick
6. The blue light
7. Screaming Mimi

I vividly recall sitting in ground school while the instructor explained the operation of “The Donkey Dick”. He used the term “donkey dick” repeatedly in lieu of its real name, and even had “Donkey Dick” as an answer on the multiple choice systems test at the end of the class. I have a VHS video produced by the company (as a study review) that has a “student” and “instructor” discussing the “Donkey Dick” and it’s operation.

HR was a pretty small department back in those days, and mainly dealt with things such as sick leave and changing your number of exemptions on your W2....

Funny thing I realized after I typed this. In some ways, the “Donkey Dick” was very similar to the MCAS. We just didn’t have acronyms back then...lol

[Suvorov]

So, no. Well, that's fortunate for you guys. I have no idea how FAMS or flight attendants do it, between the stench and dehydration.

I would've never guessed the air system was putting moisture into the passenger cabin.

I get so unbelievably dehydrated on long haul flights due to how dry the air is that I've found it's impossible to keep up by drinking water, even when I ask a flight attendant for an entire 1.5l bottle for myself and just down the thing.

If you guys have any tips or tricks regarding that (other than "fly a 787, pleb"), feel free to share.

It's a struggle for us as well. Add to that the need to run a coffee IV for safety of flight issues some days/nights, as well as the hassle to coordinate bathroom breaks and the body is not well hydrated. I try and be mindful and drink one can of water per leg (seems to be easy enough for me to remember) - but that doesn't always happen.

I don't fly really long haul so my focus is on trying to keep the body well hydrated before and after the flight but there is no doubt - flying is bad for you.

Lets not even get into radiation.

[GJM]

So MCAS does not work when the aircraft is on auto pilot. We know that RVSM cruise is on the auto pilot, and a high percentage of the time the aircraft is in the air, it is on auto pilot.

We know that MCAS does not work when flaps are extended.

That leaves MCAS functioning when the aircraft is hand flown, without flaps, a relatively small percentage of the time the aircraft is in the air. Since both the auto pilot and flaps defeat MCAS, that means that an inoperative MCAS, which was dormant, can kick in as flaps go up, or the auto pilot is disengaged. Unless I am missing something, that, along with an inop AOA probe not disabling the system, doesn’t seem a brilliant design?

[Suvorov]

That leaves MCAS functioning when the aircraft is hand flown, without flaps, a relatively small percentage of the time the aircraft is in the air. Since both the auto pilot and flaps defeat MCAS, that means that an inoperative MCAS, which was dormant, can kick in as flaps go up, or the auto pilot is disengaged. Unless I am missing something, that, along with an inop AOA probe not disabling the system, doesn’t seem a brilliant design?

Nope. Except it was never supposed to do this.

One other thing to keep in mind is that ALL 737s have a very similar system that does essentially the same thing but in slightly different envelopes and with slightly different parameters called "Speed Trim." In fact during the days after the Lion Air crash there were many speculating that it was the Speed Trim the precipitated the event. It has never had any history of issues or behavior like we have seen with MCAS in all these years. I just don't think the folks at Boeing ever really considered these systems going haywire. Why the Speed Trim system on the Max wasn't modified to account for the concerns MCAS was installed on is one of the biggest questions I have about this whole fiasco.

[jwperry]

Lets not even get into radiation.

Such as?

I've read concerns on ozone issues for folks trying to fly higher & faster I'm biz jets, but not so much on 121 operators.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[peterb]

I get so unbelievably dehydrated on long haul flights due to how dry the air is that I've found it's impossible to keep up by drinking water, even when I ask a flight attendant for an entire 1.5l bottle for myself and just down the thing.

If you guys have any tips or tricks regarding that (other than "fly a 787, pleb"), feel free to share.

This stuff might be worth a try:

https://www.skratchlabs.com/collecti...nt=42708341957

It goes down well when I’m really dry.

The Sport mix works great for sweaty activities — it’s my favorite for cycling — but it has too much salt for just sitting.

[Stephanie B]

Such as?

I've read concerns on ozone issues for folks trying to fly higher & faster I'm biz jets, but not so much on 121 operators.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

Cosmic rays. There is a tool for estimating exposure, but it's kind of old. It comes in a ZIP file, fer chrissakes.

[Trigger]

Interesting reading on changes to the size of the trim wheel and the stabilizer, as it evolved from the Classic to the NG. Requiring more muscle power to crank the manual trim wheel, and necessitating the invention of a roller coaster maneuver to unload the stab in order to retrim it manually. I’ll bet the passengers would love that maneuver.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/0...g-737-ngs.html

Writer is a bit dramatic/hyperventilating at time, but the information is detailed and accurate. Boeing could have more problems going forward. Time will tell.

[TGS]

This stuff might be worth a try:

https://www.skratchlabs.com/collecti...nt=42708341957

It goes down well when I’m really dry.

The Sport mix works great for sweaty activities — it’s my favorite for cycling — but it has too much salt for just sitting.

I was talking to a pilot yesterday who said that the passenger cabin is pressurized to the point at which the outlier of a given population will start feeling the effects of altitude sickness.

So, it's quite possible I'm more susceptible to altitude sickness than the average bear, and that's what I'm feeling as well. 14 hour flights are fucking killer to me.

And, funny enough to how everyone is talking about the pilot shortage: One of our agents recently left to go fly for airlines again. He was at a regional before joining our agency. I guess he decided he liked flying better, and with how quickly a pilot can advance now he went back. Maybe they reached out to former pilots who left flying and offered a reinstatement bonus, I'm not sure. He's with United out of Virginia.

[Suvorov]

I was talking to a pilot yesterday who said that the passenger cabin is pressurized to the point at which the outlier of a given population will start feeling the effects of altitude sickness.

So, it's quite possible I'm more susceptible to altitude sickness than the average bear, and that's what I'm feeling as well. 14 hour flights are fucking killer to me.

And, funny enough to how everyone is talking about the pilot shortage: One of our agents recently left to go fly for airlines again. He was at a regional before joining our agency. I guess he decided he liked flying better, and with how quickly a pilot can advance now he went back. Maybe they reached out to former pilots who left flying and offered a reinstatement bonus, I'm not sure. He's with United out of Virginia.

Cabin Altitude is typically 7-8000 feet pressure altitude at cruise - about the same as Laramie Wyoming. That can be tough for people with pulmonary issues but shouldn’t be a real problem for healthy people. I suspect it is the discomfort of being shoehorned into tiny seats as well as lack of movement that is contributing to your issues with air travel as than it is really the cabin altitude. I know from tons of experience that riding in the back while commuting or deadheading can be as fatiguing as flying the plane.