Dark cockpit philosophy
I am not sure if I understand this policy correctly. From what I understand, when everything is "normal", the push buttons are unlit. i.e. dark = everything okay. I am curious about what if you have a piece of equipment where it is okay for it to be OFF or ON. Suppose, just for discussion sake, we wanted a cockpit pushbutton for say a coffee maker. Now it is quite normal to have this coffee maker ON for a few hours, just as it is normal to have it OFF for many hours. How would one design such a switch to be dark cockpit compliant? i.e wouldn't the ON coffee maker ruin the "darkness" of the cockpit, even though it is a "normal" condition ? I am not an aviation professional, so would be grateful if someone can clarify this design philosophy. Thank you.
Last edited by freshgasflow; 4th Nov 2012 at 08:26.