C.W. Lemoine, ex fighter pilot and current commercial pilot, comments on 737 Max

New Orleans guy who I stumbled on recently when he commented on the new Top Gun trailer. Love his stuff so far.

Video is dated September of last year, clarifies that all of this is just his opinion and doesn't represent Boeing or any private or military entity.

LINK


I'll try to summarize:

-Back during the Clinton administration, they encouraged Boeing, an engineer's company, to merge with McDonnell Douglas, pretty much run by accountants and lawyers, but McDonnell Douglas people essentially took over and have been running Boeing.

-He flies the 737 NG and he says the 737 is an airplane design that has been stretched beyond it's original intent and completely outdated. Instead of getting a new type rating on a new design for the cockpit, and since they stopped production of the 757, they just kept modifying the 737.

-The Airbus comes up, and since Boeing didn't have any new designs ready to compete, the 737 Max is "designed", new engines, raised gear. With the new engines the stall characteristics changed. Because of this, they installed MCAS, which is in the 737 NG. In their opinion, the presence of the MCAS allowed them to skip training on the new stall characteristics because it was an automatic correction in place, allowing them to avoid more comprehensive redesigns and not have to get a new type rating ($$$).

-When they were converted to the Max, he wasn't told about the MCAS. All of his training for that was some iPad lessons, self education, and then more academic info from instructors.

-He did say that from all of his training, when the plane is operating in an unknown manner, his first reaction, ALWAYS, is to turn off the autopilot, and if the switch doesn't work, they know where the kill switches are. And he has been trained in what he calls "runaway trim situations". All that to say he still feels safe flying the Max if and when it makes it back to commercial flights.







Maybe info most people here knew already, but it was cool to hear from someone with that experience who had flown the plane.