Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about suspected safety flaw

Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by NikolaNovak on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @08:22PM (#19374467)

Boggles the mind on several levels: 1. That airlines would use consumer tablets without hard-copy backup as matter of procedure. I remember Air Canada announcing it and how it would save so much weight for both pilots and the airplane, and thinking... I print my Google Maps as a backup for roadtrips, I sure as heck would do it on a flight!

2. Perhaps I'm misjudging, but the tone and perspective of pilot makes me worry for their approach and technical skills. Does not routinely copy to local device before takeoff? "Maybe it's a 737max thing"? Airdropping as a solution?

This does not smell off setting up for success... :<

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by untog on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @12:21AM (#19375707)

I'd be curious to know what "WiFi" means here exactly. If it means "my flight plan is stored on the internet and I didn't save a local copy" then yeah, I think that's insane. But if it's a local WiFi network it doesn't seem so weird to me. You should, in the course of day to day operation, be able to expect a WiFi router will work.

Of course, it'll fail at some point, but it's not like they were cut off from the world, they could have radioed for the information if the copilot didn't have it, or something.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by kalleboo on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @02:48AM (#19376301)

> You should, in the course of day to day operation, be able to expect a WiFi router will work.

My experience with WiFi routers is the opposite. I will wire anything important.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by untog on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @01:09PM (#19380879)

I very much doubt they're using consumer grade Linksys boxes in there, though.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by kalleboo on Thursday March 14, 2019 @08:35AM (#19388626)

Enterprise WiFi networks work better but my experience has still been far from what I'd call reliable.

I'd like to say an airplane might work better as a controlled environment than an office building, but probably not if you have 300 passengers in the back, half of whom have forgotten their MiFi devices running in their carryon.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by gerbilly on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @08:39AM (#19377993)

Yeah me too.

You know if WiFi was so awesome, wifi routers wouldn't have wires in them!

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by addicted on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @09:41PM (#19374953)

As a non technical person, who is about to fly an 80 ton vehicle for extended distances, local backups of WiFi dependent data is not likely to be a major concern.

Especially if (a) it’s not part of your extensive checklists, which would reasonably be expected to be included if it was important, and (b) you’ve lost WiFi in other planes before without losing your flight plan.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by bredren on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @10:35PM (#19375175)

I’m a technical person and it is a major concern.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by vultour on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @06:19AM (#19377314)

They were in cruise, which means the flight plan was already set and can be viewed on the MCDU. Sure they lost a fancy map on the ipad but that doesn't mean they suddenly don't know where to go.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by NikkiA on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @08:56AM (#19378101)

There are a number of situations where the checklist calls for reinsertion of the flightplan during flight, they would be lost in those situations.

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by mcv on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @06:44AM (#19377463)

I know nothing about piloting, but I would have expected a flight plan to be stored on the plane itself. Accessible directly on some screen in the cockpit or something. Why rely on consumer devices that require wifi?

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Re:Boeing 737 Max pilots complained to feds for months about... by reacweb on Wednesday March 13, 2019 @04:39AM (#19376814)

It is called "electronic flight bag" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_flight_bag . I see it as a technical loophole that allows to gives handy tools to pilots and airlines with reduced hassles of certification processes.

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