Dark cockpit philosophy

[freshgasflow]

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.

[KAG]

"I am intrigued by this policy." So am I.

[Lord Spandex Masher]

A light also shows when something isn't in the usual position. Not just a fault.

[albatross]

I always remember an incident where my Capt. looked at the caution panel which was lit up like Macy's at Xmas and stated with a sigh: "It appears that the off lights are on. Immediate actions and ECL please." LOL

[RTN11]

The overhead panel would be exclusively dark panel policy. Even if the cabin crew call, it's a yellow warning light on the overhead panel to warn you of this. Nice things are in blue, like "external power available" or "fuelling" but in flight this should obviously be blank.

Same with the central warning panel.

There would then be a separate panel for things which may be on or off, for example engine anti-ice.

[Sillypeoples]

Well the point of an annunciator panel is to group all these systems, gauges into one place....no light popping on, no problem......less need to scan everything for problems...reduces pilot workload....the annunciator panel basically replaced the flight engineer.

Clear or 'dark panel'...cleared for take off...

[Holding at]

[QUOTE]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./QUOTE]

There is nothing normal about the coffee maker being switched OFF.

[grounded27]

Normally there are not coffee pots in the flight deck.

[Piltdown Man]

If, and it's a big IF, you had a coffee maker on an aircraft AND it was controlled by a push button switch in the overhead panel, a "Dark Cockpit" would probably give you the following switch captions "OFF" - blank, "Fault" - Amber, "ON" blue or green. If you also had EICAS or similar, there would be no status for OFF or ON, but a fault would generate a message like "COFFEE MAKER FAULT" with a single or double chime.

If it was an Embraer E-Jet and controlled by a rotary switch, it would probably have two positions, OFF and AUTO. Moving the switch to OFF would generate and EICAS message of "COFFEE MAKER SW NOT AUTO". There would also be some perverse logic about flight level, minutes in the cruise, toilet door locks and cabin lights to make the bloody thing work, except on Wednesdays.

PM

[Shiny side down]

Treat the coffee maker like you might, say, treat the engine anti ice, or maybe better still, the window heat on a 737.

Grounded27
You are quite correct, and why this has never been adequately addressed in the CDL under 'flight deck essential lifestyle support services' is anyone's guess. I guess we are not viewed as customers in the modern service oriented corporate thinking, and therefore undeserving.

Next we'll be getting erroneous and conflicting explanations from company about why we are delayed.