For those who have flown the A330:
How many key strokes (steps) does it take to call up the F/CTL ECAM System Page on the SD. This screen shows where the rudder and THS are, and what the spoilers are doing, what spd brks are or aren't doing, and a prim/sec status. It also looks to tell you which hyd system is up or down as related to a given flight control.
Does this screen get auotmatically pre-empted by rising ECAM alerts, or does is stay active once selected?
Background thinking to my question:
About 20 years ago, something as simple as switching Radio Freqs went from a simple manual task of turning a button here or there, to a process which requires opening a screen and typing in freqs. (This was in the SH-60F). As I had never had trouble with switching radios by hand, I looked into this and noticed that it takes MORE time and steps to switch radios via software. From a pilot task loading perspective, this was idiotic. It appeared to me one of many "solutions" looking for a problem. On that aircraft, the sole FBW control surface was the horizontal stabilizer. (Sorta like the THS in A330, but different). A single, small gauge in the lower center of the instrument panel told you where the stab was at all times. (It was mostly controlled by an auto trim feature). This gauge was a cross check instrument, not a primary scan instrument. You only needed it if things were a bit wrong with the electronics. There was also a manual control that overrode the electro-trim and allowed you to fix its position as needed.
Back to THS on an A330.
I don't know if the crew in AF447 would have thought to look at where their THS was ... but ... if the PNF had wanted to, how many steps in sequence would it take to discover where that control surface was positioned?
Last edited by Lonewolf_50; 5th Aug 2011 at 13:05.