Mentour Pilot
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2019–2020
20:22 · 1.2M views · Mar 15, 2019
Mentour Pilot, a 737 instructor, explains the approach-to-stall and escape manoeuvre and why the 737 MAX needs MCAS while the 737NG did not. He covers the jackscrew and pitch behavior in terms a general viewer can follow.
HN people recommend it as an easy-to-understand pilot's explanation of the 737 MAX MCAS issue.
3 comments from Hacker News
> And of course, the main problem that the whole, entire airplane is unstable in the air. That's not really true. The airframe is fine, except it doesn't handle like a 737. MCAS was meant to make the MAX handle like a 737. Mentour Pilot, a 737 instructor with a youtube channel, has covered this fairly extensively: this video
If you have 20-ish minutes to spare, I suggest this video about the same topic by Mentour Pilot who is a 737 NG captain: this video It's not very technical, but very easy to understand. Assumes you have some basic aviation knowledge e.g. what a stall is and how weight & balance affects flying.
> "decided to move the engines forward making the aircraft dynamically unstable," I don't believe that's true. Per Mentour Pilot, the 737 MAX and the 737 NG are both very stable aircraft that are not prone to stalling[0]. That there is a difference in performance characteristics that creates a difference in how an escape from stall maneuver is to be performed, and the MCAS is meant to paper over that difference. [0] this video @16:25 "[...] The 737 MAX and NG are equally less indicative of getting stalled, okay? They are very good, very nicely flying aircraft. But once they're in a thrust stall, they have slightly different characteristics. [...]"