MAX And The Diminishing Role Of Pilots - AVweb

“Roller Coaster.” That’s it, thanks. Once again, they’re relying on computers to do what they should be doing for themselves. Your comment could save lives (sic) and ought to be in the MAX manuals.

One time – after I did an annual on my 172 – I flew it and immediately recognized that something wasn’t ‘right’ with the elevator forces. Playing the ‘tapes’ back in my mind, I decided that maybe I had forgotten the 4" inspection plate on the R horiz stab lower skin in front of the trim tab (my knee was hurting and I didn’t bend under it to catch it). Sure enough, that was it. I calculated that ~11% of the airflow over the tab could have been disturbed and because I’ve been flying THAT airplane for decades, I recognized it right away. Doesn’t take much to put things awry.