Originally Posted by Mad (Flt) Scientist
I'm going to probably cause some raised eyebrows with this, but there's a few statements in the foregoing posts which I somewhat disagree with:
and
Look at the relative costs, in either $ or test flight hours, between HQ/Perf and Systems. Look at the impact on operational use and safety of the two areas. Look at what it's actually possible for a TP to have influence over.
Much though it pains me to say it, given my own discipline, a TP who can provide accurate and useful input into the avionics/systems development and testing is FAR more useful than a HQ expert. Once a plane gets into even development test, there's very little anyone can do about HQ or performance deficiencies - the best you can do is band-aid it. But systems by their very nature are more amenable to incremental changes during development.
If you don't like the way the plane flies the approach, there's almost nothing I can do to fix it for you. If the FMS is less user-friendly than the IRS, the systems guys might be able to do something about it.
I'll agree that HQ testing may be more 'exciting', more 'sexy', more 'how the man in the street sees test pilots' - after all, those are the tests which cause you to strap on a chute. But while getting the bugs out of the avionics may be more mundane, and getting the abnormal and emergency procedures workable an exercise in bureaucracy, I'd say the latter are more important.
Which, in relation to the FTE-into-TP discussion means that a large organisation that can carry the overhead of TP-specialisation can definitely accept a 'less-piloty' TP in exchange for more engineering knowledge in some of their pilots.
An important point there however, which is that any properly managed aircraft design / approval organisation should have TP involvement from the drawing board (and to an extent FTE, but that tends to phase in a bit more slowly). There *should* be no major need to correct HQ or ergonomic issues post first-build (mind you, I've worked on a few projects where there definitely was).
So, whilst they may not do that much P&HQ flying - it is that skillset which should make the TP as valuable as he is.
G