Thinking further on the reasoning behind why Mike Patey went for many cockpit screens got me remembering to when I first started flying on the aircraft dials.
Back in the day I had my own VFR aircraft though used to rent the IFR capable machines and flew many types of aircraft from Mooneys, Pipers, and Cessna’s. One thing all these different types of aircraft had were the same basic type of primary instrument flight layout - the ‘six pack’ layout. Vac AH/DG, Air pressure AS/ALT/VSI and an electric TC (Not all aircraft were standardised to the six pack though the aircraft I flew were) The failure checking and resolution were thus standardised to whatever I flew.
Whilst the organisations I rented from always checked me out on an aircraft before I flew it there was never any discussion about the six pack. No matter what ‘type’ of aircraft I flew I had no confusion as to what I should do re flying on the dials or any instrument failure errors. They all had the same ‘type’ of primary instrument panel and the same ‘type’ of failure systematic routine.
Nowadays, there seems to be no standardised layout to aircraft panels re primary instrument flight. I recall when the then Archerfield Cirrus dealer got the first ‘big screen’ aircraft in I got a late night demo run in it. All went well for me the first ten minutes or so into flight whilst I sat there in awe looking at the video game in front of me though, then it occurred to me, what happens if that big glowing screen suddenly goes blank ? Enquiring, I discovered there were a standard AH somewhere about my left knee !!! I wondered how I would transition from a big bright glowing screen going dark to a poorly lit little AH….
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