bob turner
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- Joined
- Jan 7, 2005
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First a caveat - I am indeed an old dude, but also I am qualified in the A-320, one of the most advanced airliners in the world with a reasonably complex navigation and flight instrument suite. I was quite good at the "magic."
What is prompting this is my belief that we have carried the magic too darn far. This belief is backed only by my resistance to actually learn these complex systems, choosing only to figure out how to talk on the radio, change frequencies, and go from A to B safely VFR.
This works only if I am the only pilot on board. the minute I stick a "qualified" pilot in the aircraft, somebody pushes something and presto - we are on the wrong frequency, or worse, one of us is on one frequency and the other some other equally useless frequency.
My big complaint runs like this: midnight, tower is closed, ATC says "Heading 250 for the intercept, maintain 2600, cleared for the approach." There is a light coat of rime on the wings and maybe a little on the windshield, and there is a kid in the back seat screaming its head off with an earblock. Worse, the pilot has to pee. One finger in the wrong spot, and guess what? Nobody is flying the aircraft; all fingers are trying to get the localizer back on the screen.
But I plan to give the avionics the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it is ridiculous to think that something like that can even happen?
So I owe it to myself to get a decent GTN-750 checkout. Brought the book home. Folks, there are knobs! I am not that far in to the study (page ix) but I note that there is a push button on the lower right that can be used as an enter button, maybe a switch between nav and com, and a flip-flop button. I have a button like that on my GTR-200s, but it is mostly for maintenance and frequency entry in memory, and I have to read my own notes before messing with it. I have set up ten of these, and still have to read my notes.
I think that I am being too quick to judge, and maybe too old to deal with quite so many different ways to do simple stuff, like dial in the tower and push the mic button. And I note that even something as simple as a five step procedure to rid the shower stall of moisture each and every darn day is starting to confuse me (lemme see, is this where I squeegee everything, or is it time for the synthetic towel?)
But maybe even an old dude can figure out how to stay out of trouble with these magic TV screens. I will read the primer, hook up the simulator, gain some proficiency, and report back.
I think I will share this between the J3 forum and the champcita forum. Small, informal, but both have really experienced pilots as participants. More much later.
What is prompting this is my belief that we have carried the magic too darn far. This belief is backed only by my resistance to actually learn these complex systems, choosing only to figure out how to talk on the radio, change frequencies, and go from A to B safely VFR.
This works only if I am the only pilot on board. the minute I stick a "qualified" pilot in the aircraft, somebody pushes something and presto - we are on the wrong frequency, or worse, one of us is on one frequency and the other some other equally useless frequency.
My big complaint runs like this: midnight, tower is closed, ATC says "Heading 250 for the intercept, maintain 2600, cleared for the approach." There is a light coat of rime on the wings and maybe a little on the windshield, and there is a kid in the back seat screaming its head off with an earblock. Worse, the pilot has to pee. One finger in the wrong spot, and guess what? Nobody is flying the aircraft; all fingers are trying to get the localizer back on the screen.
But I plan to give the avionics the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it is ridiculous to think that something like that can even happen?
So I owe it to myself to get a decent GTN-750 checkout. Brought the book home. Folks, there are knobs! I am not that far in to the study (page ix) but I note that there is a push button on the lower right that can be used as an enter button, maybe a switch between nav and com, and a flip-flop button. I have a button like that on my GTR-200s, but it is mostly for maintenance and frequency entry in memory, and I have to read my own notes before messing with it. I have set up ten of these, and still have to read my notes.
I think that I am being too quick to judge, and maybe too old to deal with quite so many different ways to do simple stuff, like dial in the tower and push the mic button. And I note that even something as simple as a five step procedure to rid the shower stall of moisture each and every darn day is starting to confuse me (lemme see, is this where I squeegee everything, or is it time for the synthetic towel?)
But maybe even an old dude can figure out how to stay out of trouble with these magic TV screens. I will read the primer, hook up the simulator, gain some proficiency, and report back.
I think I will share this between the J3 forum and the champcita forum. Small, informal, but both have really experienced pilots as participants. More much later.
