Originally Posted by Mad (Flt) Scientist
I'm going to probably cause some raised eyebrows with this,
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.
No raised eyebrows here at all. In fact, 90% of my work is systems testing and for the reasons you describe above it is (and becoming increasingly) more heavily weighted than HQ testing. The difference is, however, that one can still get away with sub-optimal systems design and certify an aircraft. When it comes to HQs, the 'hard deck' of what is acceptable is a bit more visible. I have been working with HQ problems on some of our modified aircraft and they get ugly...and it takes someone with an excellent understanding of HQs and an appropriate amount of relevant experience to sort this out. That tends to be a tp (although not necessarily). I've also noticed a tendency for organisations to spring the £'s/$'s for systems short courses, but not so much for flying qualities. Probably because they hire ex-military QTPs for the HQ portions, and use specifically trained personnel for some of the dedicated systems test. What it comes down to is that out of your cadre of testers you'd better have one or two with the complete portfolio of test experience, and you can then make up the rest with specialists. The French system of class A and class B licenses recognises this quite well...