Posted on 03/12/2019 12:52:10 PM PDT by Simon Foxx
Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are........needed, and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great cost yet very little gain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!
(Excerpt) Read more at twitter.com ...
And another “white elephant” that should not have been built. How many dozens of Marines have died because that aircraft is difficult to control?
re: “Waiting until the cause of the crash is known before speaking would be a good idea.”
We already have a GOOD idea what happened on Lion flt JT310, a 737 Max, last year.
CVR and DFDR both recovered. Incident A/C had an issue the day before, flight crew worked through the issue.
Circumstances look to parallel THAT which happened with the ET crash.
Pls try to keep up ...
*LOL* All I can add to what you wrote is that every single time I see the word "App" appear on my computer screen, I literally scream at it: "There are no 'Apps' on my computer - only PROGRAMS you %@$!^@!!" :>) True story.
They have to justify their jobs, make something new, complicated.
From someone who is supposed to know.....
Apparently an erroneous Angle of Attack sensor causes the computer to think the angle is too steep and starts dialing in down trim. The pilot tries to compensate but safeties in the software refuse to let him. The plane porpoises up down up down then down. (pundit on TV said that also yesterday)
This is happening in ‘manual’ control, not auto-pilot.
All controls are computer driven, even ‘manual’ control. Fly-by-Wire.
There is a workaround IF the pilot is trained to use it. Flipping some switches.
I tried to change the bulb in my 2016 Ford Fusion Headlight and found it had been over engineered, so that I have to take the front bumper off to get to the lights....
“Everything should be made as simple as possible. But no simpler.”...................Albert Einstein...............
:)
I remember those 400 dollar Chevy Novas I bought used :)
A screwdriver in the right place could keep it running for months longer!
Exactly. Purposely bought a previous model year Toyota which lacked all the current model year’s “anti-crash protection”.
The camera bonded to the windshield more than quadruples the price of replacing the glass, even if you re-use the camera.
No thanks.
Absolutely right !
Only a fool would value complexity for its own sake.
It is difficult enough to properly test the simplest system, even if you are testing incremental changes to an existing system.
Complex and completely new systems with massive complications are really untestable. You learn their failure modes the hard way.
Unfortunately there is an engineering/tech mentality that a “better” product has to to be cool, and new, and complex, and woke, and modern and hi-tech and progressive, and disruptive, and transformative... rather than simple and reliable and durable and robust.
They are designing to impress other techies and prove they are the world’s “greatest” engineers.
Instead they prove the exact opposite. And it has infected every product, software hardware, cars, airplanes, bridges buildings...
The simple stuff is much less likely to catastrophically fail. And when it does you can easily turn it off. Contrast that with, for example, a Lexus with a malfunctioning drive by wire, that the driver couldn’t figure out the engine turn off sequence under stress, because it didn’t have a key.
I presume then that Mr. Trump is not a fan of autonomous self-driving vehicles.
Once worked an issue on a C5 galaxy written up as “aircraft porpoises while transmitting on HF radio.”
What could the radio have to do with a control system?
Months later, it was determined that the HF radio’s antenna position and frequency interfered with the electrical signals used by the autopilot. So when the pilot transmitted with autopilot enabled, it caused the plane to pitch up, correct itself, pitch up, correct itself, over and over.
Aircraft are incredibly complex these days.
Well said.
Old software engineer. 30+ years
These new kids are so eager to Put their Stamp of ownership no matter the cost on new designs.
Keep It Simple Stupid still works today.
Your summary is exactly right. And as an avionics engineer I can say this design never should’ve made it past peer review and safety analysis. A number of people should lose their careers over that design. We will see if that happens.
I did not work on the MAX but I know people who did. I worked on the NG and that model has a great safety record.
From today’s NTSB report:
Company records indicated that the captain was qualified and current in the airplane and held an FAA airline transport pilot certificate with type ratings for the B757/767 and EMB145. He had a current FAA first class medical certificate with a limitation for corrective lenses. He had worked for Atlas Air since September 2015 and had about 11,000 hours total flight experience with about 1,250 hours of experience in the Boeing 767.
The first officer was qualified and current in the airplane and held an FAA airline transport pilot certificate with type ratings for the B757/767, EMB145, and EMB170/190. He had a current FAA first class medical certificate with a limitation for glasses for near vision. He had worked for Atlas Air since July 2017 and had about 5,000 hours total flight experience with about 520 hours of experience in the Boeing 767.
I am a software geek and I am ALWAYS arguing that simpler is better.
I usually get things done in half the time as all the rest of the people who think they such brilliant software gurus...
And my code works (on the first try is always my goal) and you can read it.
For about fifteen years now airlines have had flights on total autopilot while pilots sit there soiling there shorts. Now the roads are to be inundated with self-driving trucks putting about a million people out of work. If we don’t keep an eye on it “Terminator” SkyNet WILL happen and we won’t have a damn thing to save us. It’s not the plane, it’s the artificial intelligence.
I understand what you are saying, I encapsulate it in one axiom..
Simple answers to complex problems
Root cause analysis will many times lead to over engineering attempting to have computers making decisions that once “hard coded” will not yield control to a human as they are self referencing that they know “better” than a person can do based on situations not contemplated by the programs.
This is reflected back by Airbus built planes where the fault codes and responses programmed in may turn off engines or other crazy responses that remove he ability to actually allow the pilot to fly the plane
It’s probably just the MAX variant of the 737. Overall the 737 is an incredible craft and flies 100,000 +/- successful take-offs and landings every month around the world.
The 737 MAX is slightly different - it has more powerful, ‘fuel efficient’ engines, but they are also much heavier. That changed the weight distribution of the plane and causes the nose to tilt up in flight. To accommodate that shift in weight they made the wings wider and mounted the engines in a more forward position. Ordinarily this kind of situation can be adjusted by the pilot of any craft. If the nose is constantly tilting up, or if it constantly changes direction left or right the pilot can ‘trim’ the flight control to adjust for these shifts.
Seemingly, the 737 MAX has some sort of automatic system to do this for the pilots, and the pilots were not even aware of it. And then if some kind of alarm goes off saying the plane is stalling, they are trying to fight the auto-controls. We don’t yet know all the details but there may be some faulty sensors or sensors that aren’t programmed to know about this auto-adjust system. If the plane thinks it is in a stall (loss of lift) then the first order of business for the pilot is to nudge the nose of the plane down. But they may be over-compensating or not even aware that they are actually pointing the nose down towards the earth. In the first few minutes after take-off there is not a lot of time to figure it out and take corrective measures.. especially if you don’t even know that the plane is either fighting against you or trying to do what you are also trying to do.
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