The digital/analog argument was put to me thus. A digital
watch tells you what time it is, an analog watch tells
you what time it isn't as well. The same applies to
analog instruments, in the case of the ASI it tells
you your speed if you study it and at a glance if you
are above or below your target. It's a question of
what you need to know. Digital needs study and calculation,
analog is instant.

At 19:24 25 August 2005, wrote:
I have to fall firmly and loudly into the 'digital
is good, electrical
insturments can be reliable, mechanical varios belong
in museums'
group.

I would love to see a serious study that shows that
classic analog
airspeed and altimeters (as used in gliders) are easier
to read and
less susceptible to misinterpretation than a properly
designed (but
unfortunately, theoretical) replacement digital airspeed
and altimeter.
With the advent of Head-up-Displays (HUDs), fighter
planes have moved
to almost completely digital displays of most values
- only those where
trend is crucial, such as vertical velocity and radar
altitude,
continue to have a companion analog display. Otherwise,
its a straight
number, usually rounded off to the nearest knot and
10 feet. Works
fine in an F-15E, should work pretty good in an LS6

By comparison, trying to interpret a three-needle altimeter
is like
trying to read sanskrit! And then there are 1 1/2
revolution airspeed
indicators!

If you have a PDA in your cockpit, try setting it up
to have a nice big
font altitude (and speed, if available) display on
it and try it - you
might find that it is really easy to glance at and
read.

I have two seperated battery systems, and no mechanical
vario. I'm
stuck with a 'steam-gauge' airspeed indicator and altimeter,
but what I
would really like is a digital airspeed, digital altimeter,
and an
accurate AOA indicator. For tradition, I'll keep the
vario needles -
since there I'm looking for trend (to provide a value
to the audio),
and read a digital averager for real decision making.

Heck, last year I took off on a fine day only to find
my airspeed inop
(bug in the pitot) - but that didn't prevent me from
flying a nice
little 500+ k XC with some friends of mine. The only
time I really
missed the airspeed indicator was in the pattern.
Just flew it a bit
faster than usual (that AOA indicator sure would have
been nice to have
then...).

Now the huge caveat - this is all fine in a private
ship - I don't see
how a the average club ship would manage.

Kirk
66