Plastic Pilot

(Because of technical problems, I had to re-publish this post several times. I do apologize for any inconvenience, particularly to those of you reading this blog per e-mail or RSS feed.)

Pilots do mistakes - cockpits don’t… but they sometimes help. Designing a clear and clean cockpit layout is not an easy task, and light aircrafts cockpits are sometimes messy. As owners tend to improve their planes in steps, the whole process is not always coherent. Can integrated avionics suites like the Garmin G1000 improve the situation ? Before answering, let’s talk about ergonomy.

Pilots say that a plane that looks good flies good - this usually also applies to cockpits, but not always. The cockpit on this picture look clear and modern, and I guess you like it, even if it’s not glass. However… there is something which helps pilots to make a rather risky mistake…

Everything looks well placed, and you don’t see what’s can lead to pilot errors ? No idea ? So look at the next picture, there is a hint…

Seen that ? Yes, the “RADIO MASTER” is immediately beside the DME source switch. How silly is that ? It happened to me twice to switch the radio master off while wanting to change the DME source. Consequences ? No more radio, navigation receivers, transponder, GPS, autopilot, and immediate HSI and NAV2 OBS NAV flags ! Do that while intercepting and ILS in IMC conditions, controllers will enjoy, and you even more….

The shame is, there is a free slot in this series of switches, so it would be possible to have nothing immediately beside the radio master.

Now have a look at the G1000 and its lot of buttons, knobs and selectors. Altimeter setting, course selection, heading selection, altitude pre-selection, frequency tuning, map zooming, panning and all flight plan entries are made via combined knobs. Oops.

One desing factor that helps to reduce the risk of error is the special shaping of the heading selector (left column, third from the top) of the course selector (right column, third from the top) which is triangle shaped. A part of learning to fly with the G1000 is to learn where is what.

On a classical cockpit this is not an issue as each know is located beside the corresponding instrument (heading bug by the HSI, altimeter setting by the altimeter, and so on). Despite not being an expert, I feel comfortable with the G1000, but it think twice before turning a knob… and I sometimes turn the altimeter setting instead of the course selector.

Training for the G1000 is about the system, but also about how to use it. It’s extremely flexible and powerful, and unless you’re a genius, the best way not being trapped is to have strong standard operating procedures (SOP).

Speaking of ergonomy, the main benefit of glass cockpits like the G1000 is that they are the same in all planes. I personally flew two Saratogas with very different cockpit layouts, and 5 PA28. Their cockpits had nearly nothing in common, except yoke, throttle and flaps.