Countries Restricting 737 MAX Flights After Second Crash

[RoyGBiv]

I fly to Asia pretty regularly for work. I've had good and bad experiences, but here's what I've landed on for minimum disruption:
-Dont consume too much alcohol on the flight. Some is good as it mellows me out, but one too many will ruin me
-Always get an aisle seat. An extra inch or 2 to lean toward the aisle is huge
-Take melatonin. It helps me drift off to sleep occasionally and also mellows me out
-Dont eat much. Never eat the eggs. Always choose the Asian meal. When in doubt I usually grab a bag of jerky, nuts, and/or Kind bars to keep my stomach from growling. Plane food has a tendency to make me nauseous.
-Double plug. Foam earplugs + noise cancelling headphones = I don't GAF how loud the kid behind my screams
-Sleep as much as possible. Unusually wear a hoodie, pull it over my head, then drape my blanket over the front of my body and head. Creates a bit of a cocoon and keeps random lights/movement from bothering me. If I'm lucky I'll get 30-90 minutes at a time and maybe 4+ naps on a 12-14 hr flight
-Stretch. I usually touch my toes a few times whenever I get up.
-Get as many steps as possible during the layover.
-Bring extra water into the plane. Drink it.


Typically I'll arrive at my destination in the evening. I get to the hotel, crash, and force myself out of bed at ~5:30 and get some exercise. Light cardio, light weights if available, or just basic bodyweight movements in my room if thats all that's available. This for me is key. With a good workout and a good breakfast I can power through the first day and have no jet lag after that.

Disclaimer: I think the 12hr time change is easier to get over than 4-8 hours. Maybe because I've done it a lot but it seems like I can just suffer th the first day and get switched over while a 4 hour change I feel like I never really acclimate to.

Very close to my plan. I can't do earplugs, but I can do earbuds with the volume on low.

"Always choose the Asian meal". .... This. 100%

[GJM]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-...es-11562686324

Deliveries down.

[GJM]

Delta benefitting, as their business is up, as other US carriers that operate the Max, have had to cancel flights.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/delta-g...nd-11562842842

[GJM]

Max likely grounded into 2020:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-...20-11563112801

[entropy]

Yep. At least.

[GJM]

Boeing reserves $5 billion to compensate airlines for Max issues:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-...rs-11563482831

[TiroFijo]

Boeing reserves $5 billion to compensate airlines for Max issues:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-...rs-11563482831

Holey crapoley...

How much are the net gains of Boeing in a year?

[Drang]

This is distressing...
Strategy Page: Logistics: Boeing Blunders Big Time
I was working a temp job at The Lazy B when they moved HQ out of Seattle to Chicago. (Which was just before 9/11.) Lots of "economies" started then.
And lots of folks around here are upset, there are 3 generation Boeing families around here. (But my wife was not at all upset when I couldn't get a permanent job there, she had seen too many Boeing Boom and Bust cycles to want to play.)

[Drang]

This is distressing...
Strategy Page: Logistics: Boeing Blunders Big Time
I was working a temp job at The Lazy B when they moved HQ out of Seattle to Chicago. (Which was just before 9/11.) Lots of "economies" started then.
And lots of folks around here are upset, there are 3 generation Boeing families around here. (But my wife was not at all upset when I couldn't get a permanent job there, she had seen too many Boeing Boom and Bust cycles to want to play.)

Update: On both Monday and Tuesday mornings I had to drive Mrs. Drang up to The Belly of The Beast (AKA Seattle) for medical appointments.
At 0730.
Which meant leaving home, maybe 20 miles south, by 0630.

I5 goes right by King County International Airport, AKA Boeing Field (BFI), which hosts major Boeing operations, including the paint "shed", test flight facilities, and final preps prior to 737 delivery.

There are least a dozen KC46s parked on the apron there.

I couldn't help but reflect on the fact that Boeing's original proposed replacement for the KC135 was based on the 757, not the 767, the 757 being a better fit for the size aircraft specific in the RFP. Airbus' offering was based on their direct competitor for the 767, which meant it was bigger, exceeding the specs in the RFP. Air bus won, Boeing protested, on the grounds that if that's what the Air Force wanted they should have said so. Boeing's protest was upheld.
Relevance? I dunno.

I was further prompted to recall my days working summer jobs at Dodge Main, Chrysler's Hamtramck Assembly Plant. One day I was looking out the window and made an observation about the parking lot full of identically-painted cars, and one of the old timers made a comment to the effect that they were all being delivered free; a standard clause in fleet sales contracts was that for every day the cars were delivered late the penalty was basically one free car.
Apparently, part of the not-yet revealed Chrysler financial problems was that the company was delivering entire fleets for free.

I guess the bottom line (so to speak) is that you need accountants to keep the engineers in line, but somebody needs to hold the accountants accountable.

[Drang]

Lots of new info here: Newly stringent FAA tests spur a fundamental software redesign of Boeing’s 737 MAX flight controls | The Seattle Times

While conducting newly stringent tests on the Boeing 737 MAX flight control system, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in June uncovered a potential flaw that now has spurred Boeing to make a fundamental software-design change.

Boeing is changing the MAX’s automated flight-control system’s software so that it will take input from both flight-control computers at once instead of using only one on each flight. That might seem simple and obvious, but in the architecture that has been in place on the 737 for decades, the automated systems take input from only one computer on a flight, switching to use the other computer on the next flight.

Boeing believes the changes can be accomplished in time to win new regulatory approval for the MAX to fly again by October. Significant slipping of that schedule could lead to a temporary halt in production at its Renton plant where 10,000 workers assemble the 737.

Long article. Explains the reprogramming in pretty good detail, never really explains why they only used one computer per flight.

The Seattle Times is as big a leftist rag as you would probably expect, but their Boeing and general aerospace coverage is generally pretty good.