Use of HUD for visual approach and landings

[Uplinker]

I have never used a HUD.

During Airbus FBW training however, we were told never to attempt a go-around using the ‘bird’, because our brains would instinctively try to put the bird on the +15° pitch bar, (instead of the aircraft nose), and also because there is a slight delay in the bird response. So the danger was we would pull back much too much and over pitch.

Reading the final traces of the FlyDubai accident aircraft; the HUD user’s pitch control inputs were exactly opposite to the flight director pitch requests, so there was obviously huge confusion with the HUD in the heat of the moment. The monochromatic display and different symbology seem to me to be a major safety risk, given that all our flying hours have been spent looking at the familiar blue/brown ADI presentation and very little time using a HUD?

I stand to be corrected, but I cannot see an indication of engine thrust/speed on the FlyDubai HUD presentation, so this would seem to add another area of uncertainty, and a very awkward scan - from HUD to conventional instruments and back - would be required to take in the engine EPR/N1s, and flap status etc.

I can understand a HUD for military use in combat or low flying, where the pilot needs to look outside all the time, and therefore needs certain information superimposed on their outside view. But in a commercial airliner what is the advantage of a HUD? It gives the landing pilot a few extra seconds of visual accommodation in poor visibility I suppose, but does a HUD in a commercial airliner really justify its cost? I genuinely don’t know, and am asking the question.