On Oct 6, 8:21 am, Arno wrote:
Hello,

I am computer scientist and usually really like fancy technology. But

Arno

When I used to fly Avidyne equipped planes, I absolutly loved the tape
altimeter, but preferred the dial airspeed. Ever since switching back
to steam gauges (about 600 flight hours ago) I've never quite gotten
used to the round altimeter. I still want to level off at 3800 instead
of 2800 etc.

The range of possible airspeed values varies within a limited range
(Vso to Vne). Depicting that data as a specified position within that
range makes the most sense to me. On the other hand, altitudes can be
anywhere from -600feet to 60,000 feet. The only relation the different
values have to each other is "higher" and "lower". The best way to
logically depict that relation is with a "tape" display. With a steam
gauge altimeter, 6000 feet looks pretty darn similar to 7000 feet,
8000 feet and 9000 feet, even though those values have no meaningful
relation (other than they all end with zeros which means nothing to a
pilot). With a tape display, 6000 looks nothing like 7000, but it does
kind of look similar to 6100 and 5900, which is meaningful to a pilot.