The NG is poorly designed when it comes to switches and where they are placed. You ask for the wipers, and you get engine ignition. You ask for eng a-ice, and you get hyd pumps. Try to operate the MCP in darkness/smoke, and you will have a hard time (as another poster already pointed out) to differenciate between heading, alt, etc.
In this tread we have the super pilots who never make mistakes, and think selecting a wrong switch is impossible and due to poor operating procedures. They are in for a big surprise sooner or later.
There is no such thing as super pilots who never make mistakes. Yes the NG is based on an antiquated design, however I'm a firm believer in LOOK before you TOUCH. People seem to believe in doing things in a flash of light - where's the rush? This is my observation anyway; and I see it quite frequently. The PMs hand moves like a world wind. A scarce glance is made in it's direction -
bam; system B is depressurised or in this case a passenger airliner approaches a spiral dive. Either people start to look or we adjust the retirement age to directly correlate with the onset of bladder issues!
