Flying the Boeing 737 MAX
By Graham, 19th March 2021
Flight Simulator Fairoaks Airport.
Opening as a private airstrip in 1931, Fairoaks Airport (EGTF) has gone on to have a rich 90-year history - creating numerous commercial pilots, engineers, ground crew, and other such aviation-related careers. Those of us from Airline Experience, as the latest addition to this rich history, want to share and record our time and progress here at the airport. This blog is written by one of our Directors, Graham, describing flying the 737 Max for the first time.
An introduction to the 737 Max
Settling into my eLearning for the second time (The first time was pre-Lion Air incident), I was pleased to see the system redundancy that has now been implemented into the 737 Max. The online learning did make it seem a little like a new aircraft type with all the small changes and added systems, this took a while to wrap my head around and a lot of note taking! The MCAS system has been redesigned with redundancy in mind, it now takes information from two independent sources and will only activate once per ‘High Angle of Attack’ event.
The main changes from the 737-800NG to the 737 Max are:
Bigger, more efficient engines
A more efficient wing
More seating capacity
In order to remain cost effective, it was in the interest of Boeing to keep this type under the same licence as the 737NG. This was achieved with a number of automated systems that manipulate the aerodynamics and handling to make it ‘feel’ as if you are flying the NG. There have also been changes to the flight deck layout modernising the fleet, it is comparable to the 787 flight deck and could be a standardisation move towards an Airbus-like philosophy. The main trick with the Max it seems, is to have an awareness of these systems that are running in the background, what they do, why they do it, and in some cases, how long it takes to do.
What’s it like to fly?
Quite simply, it’s on rails. It really is lovely to fly. The Engine settings are approx 5-10% lower than on the NG and you really do feel the potential power sitting in your hand when resting on the Thrust Levers. The new Flight Deck is very noticeable, in my opinion some space could have been utilised better, on a whole it is a step in the right direction. I am a big fan of the larger screens and in particular the larger PFD, I wholeheartedly believe that the bigger the PFD is, the better. This is especially useful in upset recovery situations when all you have is “Where is the ground and where is the sky”. The aircraft will also display an arrow pointing to the shortest direction to wings level if you end up in a high bank angle situation.
The first practical difference is the start sequence, the Max has a Bowed Rotor Motoring system which motors the engine to ensure that the drive shaft stays straight and doesn’t bend. There are two engine protection systems that the aircraft is checking for you, EOS, which is engine overspeed protection and TCMA, Thrust Control Malfunction Accommodation which protects against uncontrolled high thrust on the ground, these automated systems help protect the engines. All of this activity means the start sequence can last up to about 3 minutes. The next clue of the power the max has, is as soon as you release the parking brake, it will start to taxi on idle power. Engine Anti-ice On will give you a higher idle as well so this could be a threat while taxying in tight aprons or icing conditions.
On take off the nose does seem to rotate faster than the NG in the first 5 degrees of the rotation. I am guessing this may be due to the higher nose gear strut. The famous ‘10 Degree dead band’ on the NG seems to start a couple of degrees earlier on the Max, in fact Pitch control will need some conscious thought for the first few hundred hours I fly it. Once airborne the handling characteristics are noticeably wonderful, it really does feel stable and smooth to fly. Thrust control however has its challenges, the engines take a little longer to spool up and down so you do need to anticipate this more than on the NG, I feel as though it will be less forgiving than the NG as far as thrust is concerned however a bit of credit does need to be given to my lack of muscle memory on the Max so these basic things require more thought at this stage whereas most of my operations on the NG are done by feel.
We ran through three scenarios in our airwork:
Stalling
Trim runway with an approach and go around with manual trim
Airspeed Unreliable
Stalling was the first time I witnessed the ‘MCAS’ system in action, the wing is so efficient that it does require effort to get the aircraft to stall (I am not saying there aren’t scenarios where a stall could happen accidentally, just disclaiming this as my opinion without distraction), so MCAS activates 10 knots below initial stick shaker activation. MCAS will snapshot the current trim setting and apply maximum 2.5 units nose down and then immediately return the Trim to its original position, this makes the aircraft behave almost as if you had a stick pusher. This system makes it very difficult to keep the aircraft in that undesirable, high Angle of Attack position. If you left it ‘hands off’ to its own devices, I would guess that it would recover with about an 1800 foot altitude loss by itself.
Trim Runaway was very similar to the NG and not overly worth going in to in detail, and Boeing seem to have refined the Airspeed Unreliable checklist to be able to determine a reliable source of airspeed much earlier in the checklist giving you more time to make the aircraft safe before jumping into the Pitch and Power charts (If you even end up needing to).
To elaborate on it ‘feeling like the NG’, it has a couple of systems to ensure common feel among the types. When you are at idle thrust on the approach, the spoilers will be used automatically to adjust the pitch attitude to what it would be if you were flying the NG. It will also do this in the flare for the same purpose, this is mainly because the nose gear leg is longer to accommodate the larger 69 inch fan blade on the new engine.
What is it like on the Approach and Landing?
I can see with my crystal ball potential for quite a few high energy approaches in this aircraft, it is very slippy. Energy management will be key in operating the Max and the utilisation of speedbrake and slowing down earlier will be at the forefront of my mind moving forward, although I didn't feel like it was particularly taxing to slow down as long as you are thinking about this energy and being more conservative when planning for the approach. One thing I really did notice is when you configure your flaps and you reduce the thrust to idle to bring the speed back, you need to be applying thrust again much earlier than on the NG, otherwise it will go below the limiting speed and I find will stick just below the speed you want and it needs quite a bit of power to get it back, this can be slightly destabilising so something to be aware of there.
In the NG the concept of closing the thrust levers at about 20 feet so that they hit the idle stop as the main gear touches the ground goes out of the window, this aircraft does not want to stop flying. It will float and float unless you put it down, I was closing the thrust levers at about 35 feet and flaring slightly at about 15 feet which seemed to work. It does feel different (softer) on touchdown and I think this might be something to do with the redesigned main landing gear.
To Summarise
I strongly believe that Boeing have created a really good aeroplane, as far as the fixes go for MCAS I’m also quite happy that in order for it to activate you need to get yourself in real trouble first, and if I’m honest after watching it do its thing I’m actually glad it is there as an absolute life saving last resort. I would have no hesitation boarding one as a passenger or Pilot, and I am very excited to experience a Max as either. There will be learning points in the first few months, that is true of any new aircraft type but I am confident in feeding back things to my respective airline and I am confident that all operators will be proactive in making sure the Max is operated as safely and efficiently as possible.
Purchase a flying experience in our Boeing 737 Simulator at Fairoaks Airport and try for yourself here. We can offer training and experiences from both our Boeing and light aircraft sims and can’t wait to meet you! But stay, before you fly with us, grab a coffee from either SEMET Aviation or the Fairoaks Café, enjoy a walk around the airfield looking out for all of the different species of birds and wildflower and enjoy the entire Fairoaks Airliner Experience.
Thank you for reading. Please do get in touch.