Jim Carter wrote:
This question is the result of the wrong runway issue at LEX last weekend…



Not having flown an EFIS or EFMS myself, I'm not sure of the "into
position checklist items". For example, in a standard steam-gauge panel
one of the last things we check is to align the directional gyro with
the runway heading and compass. With an EFIS or EFMS, is there any such
last minute check, or is the heading assumed to be correct because it
was aligned by the GPS when the bird came out of the chocks?



If there is no requirement to manually align and verify runway heading,
compass, and EFIS/EFMS then our technological advances have
inadvertently removed one of our heretofore unrecognized safety checks.



I heard some retired commuter pilot on the news last weekend suggesting
that the only way to prevent this in the future is to put traffic lights
(stop / go) on the end of every runway. I absolutely got the impression
that he was there to convince the public that it is almost impossible
for the pilots to get it right and the lack of the traffic signal was
the whole cause of the problem. Sort of the typical "not my fault" attitude.









In the modern jets and many GA airplanes too the DG automaticly aligns
the correct magnetic heading. Checking the EFIS heading prior to take
off was not on our companies checklist.

Michelle P