Five questions about the Boeing 737MAX!! - Answered

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During the last few weeks I have received A LOT of questions about the Boeing 737MAX. In this video I have decided to answer the 5 most common questions so make sure you watch the whole video.
Now, I want to stress that the views shown in this video are purely MY OWN and do not represtent anyone else.
I hope you will enjoy the video and continue to ask questions in the Mentour Aviation app, through Youtube, Instagram or Twitter.
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A special thank you to the channels that were featured in todays episode. To se the whole, fantastic videos, use the links below

Boeing (MAX noise certification and Display)

Runwaymap (Aero expo Freidrichshafen)

Boeing (KC 46 First ever tinkering mission)

[Chances]

As an avionics engineer for 31 years, I am absolutely appalled that the MCAS system depended upon a single Alpha Vane sensor.
All flight critical systems must be dual redundant in function. In a 21st Century designed aircraft this is inexcusable. There are NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE.

[Divine_Evil]

Hey Petter, as a Verification Engineer of Embedded systems. I simply cannot fathom, how the guys who tested/verified the MCAS system did not ask the question, what will happen if we have a mismatch in the alpha veins or if 1 or both pilots are applying manual counter trim... or if the trim wheels are held with X speed that they are supposed to...
In my line of work, we always ask ourself, what will happen if such an input misbehaves.
I cannot fathom what the Engineers that tested and missed this are feeling. People died... if I was working on the MCAS... thank god I am not.

[Chances]

As I said in a previous video on this MCAS system, there should always be dual redundancy in critical systems on aircraft. There are no exceptions to the rule - NONE!

[ronb.]

Finally a voice of reason and expertise on YOUTUBE. There are so many people eager to jump on the lets bash Boeing bandwagon who hardly know one end of an airplane from the other. Keep up the good work. I found your explanations clear, concise, and accurate. I am long retired, but have logged around 25, 000 hours in Boeing 727, 757, & 767 aircraft, and am amazed at the rush to judgment of so many uninformed people. .

[chex]

Mentour: I am a big fan of your YT channel, but I have to say that in this video, you really sounded like a Boeing apologist. I understand everyone has biases and you realy love flying your 'Baby' the 737, but I think even you could admit that Boeing made a mistake. Anyway, keep up the good work.

[TheSonicfrog]

Considering AOA indicators as "optional" based on your prior experience with AOA sensor/indicators is irrelevant when it comes to the 737-MAX because the critical MCAS system as (fatally) designed depended on those AOA sensors.

[american]

Thank you for putting this out. It’s great to hear from someone that actually uses the product.

[StevenBanks]

You are being very kind to Boeing. They are paying a price that they well deserve to pay.

[JayStClair-mhwv]

I think your giving Boeing way too much credit. 2 of the main aeronautical engineers who were principle designers of the 737 MAX since have walked away from Boeing over safety concerns over the airplanes air worthiness...On top of that..
There is an American Airlines Senior Captain of their 737 MAX Fleet is on T.V. saying he no longer supports Boeing and had a meeting with top executives at Boeing along with the Pilots Union here in the U.S. and raked Boeing over the coals and insinuated a huge betrayel by Boeing to the Pilots and the flying community.
I would really like to hear you comment on this please.
Thank You

[dheyes]

Mentour, your videos make everything much clearer. Your approach to whatever the subject matter is never feels like you are forcing your personal opinion down everyone’s throats. You give factual and very straightforward information based on what has been documented by the various aviation authorities. Some other YT aviation gurus feel that they need to use brute force to drill the subject matters into our heads. I’ve personally found that you teach very well and I hope that you will be recognized for doing a video in the correct manner. As an aside, we can also get to see your hairy kids as well showing that you are human and don’t consider yourself to be at a level above your audience. Great job as always.

[PentiumMHz]

So, instead of copying the MCAS from the military version that works well (uses two sensors, turns itself off if the sensors disagree, turns itself off if the pilot tries to move the nose up), Boeing made a civilian version of the system with one sensor and more difficult to turn off. Even though the aircraft had two sensors anyway, so it's not like Boeing saved money by not installing one of the sensors.

This looks to me like the software job was given to an intern or a new employee as a first assignment and it was made very simple - if sensor says AoA is too high (and flaps up, thrust high, autopilot off), trim the nose down, unless the pilot disconnects the trim motors.

But yea, the 737MAX is probably going to be the safest airplane after this. If there is another crash due to a design problem (problem with the fix or an unrelated problem), that would be really bad for Boeing, so I think that the whole design will be checked.

[TheKatava]

Fantastic as always. Love the way you explain everything in layman’s terms. Keep up fantastic videos!

[billyrayband]

That was an excellent update. But Boeing needs to have an independent organization do some serious investigation as to how these very poor design decisions were approved and tested. It appears to be gross negligence. They are going to be sued, there is no doubt about that.

[rodgerwiese]

I believe that Mentour explained what needed to be said and understood by the flying public and those that are interested in aviation... I believe that those in the media were not capable of explaining in layman's terms what Mentor said very clearly and jumped to conclusions without understanding how planes fly and how pilots fly them.!!!

[BelusTraveller]

2 planes down breaks my heart, I really hope they make it right for the lost lives. I have flown on the max more than once. SAFE TRAVELS,

[ratboygenius]

I like your content. I was hoping you would address the question of whether or not there is ultimately a fatal flaw in the 737 MAX design from putting engines that are too large on an airframe that was designed for smaller engines. It has been suggested in articles about the unfortunate crashes that the MCAS system was meant to rectify an aerodynamic design instability created by the positioning of the larger engines.

[shawncooper]

It’s nice to have an actual pilots point of view on this. The media has blown this way out of the water

[cr]

There was a very similar circumstance of a safety feature the pilots didn't know about causing an accident with SAS 751. It was a DC-9 (MD-81) and SAS had fitted ATR - Automatic Thrust Restoration - to prevent pilots throttling back too much for noise abatement reasons. As 751 took off, ice came off the wings into the engines, damaging them, the pilots throttled back but the ATR (which they hadn't been told about) overrode them with full climb power, which caused the engines to fail completely shortly after at 3000 feet. They were incredibly lucky and managed to crash-land in a field with no fatalities.

[FLY_GUY_JZ]

So refreshing to have a qualified and knowledgeable person talk about this issue.

[eager]

When you’re early enough for Mentour to maybe see your comment, but he explains so well in the video you’re left with no questions 😂😂