Nothing gets me more than inefficiency or reluctancy for change "just because it's always been done this way". Aviation is the king of this.
Obviously, text below should be taken
cum grano salis and with tongue firmly planted, but still......
1. The TAF's and Metar's. I get it - they have to be abbreviated to able to send over telex. Problem is the telex died, what, 30 years ago? Why on earth are we still reading an incomprehensible abbreviated piece of text?
2. Why aren't TAF's and Metar's combined? Give me the actual weather and the forecast. All in one. Madness having to look in two different places.
3. And IF you're going to use a standard, please make it a standard across the board. It's nuts to have different TAF and Metar values depending on region (one more reason to write it out in plain English - so as to avoid confusions). The US and European TAF's and Metar's are significantly different.
4. You're busy approaching an airport for landing. You have to comply with ATC and spot 5 different other aircraft whilst reading a checklist and a map, at night, all at once. Would it kill the manufacturers to have a toggle that had different settings for Taxi, Climb, Approach, Landing? That way you could just turn a knob to Landing, and the landing light and gear would come out/on. Done deal. When you've landed switch to Taxi and the taxi light comes on etc. Why have a million checkpoints on a list, when one button could accomplish all of it?
5. Why can't I get weather beamed to me in Europe to some device in the aircraft? I can get it on my Iphone, but not to my aircraft?
6. Notams pertaining to your route into the aircraft? Forget it.
7. If you take your FAA PPL in a multi engine, you're not allowed to fly single engine aircraft. WTF? At least JAA has got that one right.
8. Bigger fuel tanks. Yeah, so I get it - if I want to fly around 6 relatives all the time then I can't fill the tank up. But when I'm alone, have starved myself to a strand for 30 days and fly naked, I'd like to be able to fly a little bit longer than 450NM. Carrying empty tanks full of air doesn't cost anything.
9. Which way again? Would it kill the publishers of all the worlds VFR and IFR approach/airport plates to print the RWY pattern visually? I don't want to have to read my way through half a page of miniscule font in a shaking plane just to find out that Rwy 21 has a right hand pattern and that so-and-so nimby little village mustn't be overflown...
10. Why on earth can't I carrier wave open the landing lights at most European airports? Would they rather I ditch in the sea in darkness than use their precious facilities after they've gone home at 5pm?