A37575 - I think you are spot on!. Designing a cockpit that minimises the number of items on a checklist and callouts in flight can only be "good thing."
Oh, and another request. Allow NAV or HDG to be armed on the ground but make a sub-mode of heading like "Take-off Track" the active mode as soon as take-off power or G/A is selected. Then, at a suitable height such as 400' automatically engage the armed mode (unless manually selected earlier) or stay with "Take-off Track" if no lateral modes are armed. Keep this mode until another lateral mode is selected. Calculate the value of "take-off track" to the average track made good say between 30 and 80 kts or use the ILS "track" for the G/A.
For altimeters, built a separate barometric setting knob with QNH window shown next to the knob. A wise person would also enable Feet & hPa, Feet & Inches, plus metric. Personally I'd do that with a rotary selector but make sure that the values are converted precisely when the knob is moved We don't want to spill our tea. Have a STD knob which toggles between the pre-set QNH and STD.
PM
Last edited by Piltdown Man; 16th Dec 2010 at 09:02.
Reason: I forgot something...