On Mar 9, 1:33 pm, "EridanMan" wrote:
It still surprises me that moving a lever to extend or retract gear makes an
aircraft complex. An autopilot or GPS is a lot more complex than a gear
lever.

Its called 'pilot workload'.

In a real aircraft, you must:
-Fly the Plane
-Operate The Aircraft Systems
-Keep track of your current location
-Communicate with ATC
-Keep Watch for Traffic
-Plan your future track (or reference your flightplan), this includes
making absolutely sure you remain clear of all restricted airspace.

All in a reasonably loud, chaotic setting, with absolutely no option
to 'pause'...


I couldn't agree more!

I have been in situations where I desperately wished I could pause the
flight, one time it was because I was trying to work out where I was
over hostile and rugged terrain with no landmarks at all, while having
to fly around clouds, up valleys, not sure if my heading calculation
worked out when I had to divert was correct, which was worked out
using a map and protractor while flying through heavy turbulence,
trying to keep the wings level with my knees while working the heading
out, while dealing with an aircraft with absolutely no navaids and no
gps, a badly drifting DG, and no way to fly straight and level long
enough to reset it, flying over tiger country, and then I came to some
flat land I found I was just about right above an airfield I didn't
recognise that wasn't on the map, and having to scramble through my
map collection to find that I'd gone off the edge of my map and was
less than 1/4 mile from military airspace, all the while having to
look out for other aircraft, and fly my aircraft, the one with two
different wings that flies in circles unless you keep a heap of rudder
in the whole time...