Originally Posted by
zdog2x
I haven't seen this asked so far, but apologies if it has.
Why have MCAS operational during an initial climb? Both flights had issues within the first 2 minutes. How much risk of a stall is there during the climb while accelerating?
I read somewhere (I don't recall where and I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong) that this could be one of the phases of flight where MCAS is most important.
Because of the higher / farther forward mounting of the MAX's engines and their location relative to the center of gravity compared to non-MAX 737s, a nose-high attitude like that experienced during initial climb makes the engines themselves in effect lift devices (as the oncoming air pushes up at the bottoms of the engines), leading to an even more nose-high attitude and a more critical AoA that may not be responded to adequately enough by the pilots. Boeing determined during flight testing that the MCAS solution was necessary to counteract that effect.