Originally Posted by
sevenstrokeroll
monkey makes a good point...remember the FO retracted flaps in the colgan crash near KBUF...
True, but in her defence she was sick enough that in any other industry her manager would have sent her home the second she walked through the door - and that's before we get to the question of fatigue. Sure, the pilot error aspect of that accident was inescapable, but the real can of worms it opened was an ops culture that bordered on lunacy in any objective sense of safety concern.
Originally Posted by
ExSp33db1rd
Even on the so called 'advanced' microlights - LSA's in USAspeak - that I now instruct on, many are coming fitted with TV screen style, Glass Cockpit, instrumentation, and students spend far too much time gazing at the picture - actually trying to find the basic information like airspeed and altitude from amongst the mass of largely uneccessary information that is also there...
It's not that hard to find - you can turn the "extraneous" stuff off if you want and you have basic instruments right there. Sure it looks different from the steam gauges you grew up with, but it's all the same under the hood. If they're struggling then they didn't do their homework. If you want them to look outside, would it be that hard to tell them to do so and assure them you'll monitor the instruments for them while they get used to it?
I refuse to allow iPads when I fly with them, and am clearly regarded as a Mean Old Fart. I also ban cellphones now, after one student started texting his girl friend whilst taxying back in, before completing the After Landing Checks ! Perhaps I am a MOF ?
Nope - there you're absolutely in the right, because they're supposed to be learning, and that kind of distraction is bad news.
Look, as I understand it the "Magenta Children" meme is basically a treatise on *automation* dependence, not an avenue for bashing modern avionics in general. A PFD - even on a microlight - is just a modern iteration of the old-fashioned gauges. If you only want it used as such, then there's nothing stopping you.