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#21
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GPS vs ADF
Thomas Borchert wrote:
I find that those without an engineering background find it counterintuitive and need a lot of time to get used to it. If I may: So what? Who says things in life have to be easy or "intuitive"? Wow, you sound like an engineer. Who says it has to be easy or intuitive? Well, the customer. He's the one who matters. In the software industry (at least the successful parts of it) software is tested by intended end-users. When the software doesn't behave the way they expect, you don't retrain them - you rewrite the software. Of course the developers always bitch about this, but it's not a grey area. The customers are right and the developers are wrong. Unfortunately, in this FAA-driven environment, the customer doesn't matter. A GPS does very complex things. So it is complex to use. I said the same thing when I was told to make the doppler non-invasive flowmeter simple to use. I was told that it wasn't acceptable, and to make it easy to use. Seven years later, it's still the industry leader. You CAN make a device that does complex things easy and intuitive to use. It's just a lot of work. Is any of those people you teach really of the opinion that a CDI or an ADF are more "intutitive" than a moving map? Yeah, right... Yes. They are. But not to an engineer. Michael |
#22
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GPS vs ADF
Michael,
Wow, you sound like an engineer. Not quite. Unfortunately, in this FAA-driven environment, the customer doesn't matter. You got that right. You CAN make a device that does complex things easy and intuitive to use. It's just a lot of work. Yes, within limits. What I was trying to get at was that indeed many people complain about very complex things being, well, complex. I tried to point out that such is life - and that's what makes it so exciting. I feel there's a trend to "dumb down" things in an increasingly complex world. And I'm not a fan of that. I'm not trying to make excuses for bad interface design, not at all. But in my experience, there are limits to what you can do in that arena. Also, things simply change. To expect everything to remain the same in life without any new stuff coming in is, well, not very smart. Is any of those people you teach really of the opinion that a CDI or an ADF are more "intutitive" than a moving map? Yeah, right... Yes. They are. But not to an engineer. Excuse me, but that's just not true. Anyone who has gone through instrument training will tell you that an ADF is anything but intuitive. It's just something a pilot may be more used to, that's all. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#23
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GPS vs ADF
What I was trying to get at was that indeed many people
complain about very complex things being, well, complex. The problem is when things are =unnecessarily= complex. This often results from attempting to impose an inappropriate paradigm on the user interface, or from some limitations on the hardware, or from an ill-conceived idea of what "complex" means. (I have an answering machine that has just one button. It is a pain in the ass to use. The one that has ten buttons is lots simpler. Each button does one thing. Jose -- "Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter). for Email, make the obvious change in the address. |
#24
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GPS vs ADF
Jose wrote:
What I was trying to get at was that indeed many people complain about very complex things being, well, complex. The problem is when things are =unnecessarily= complex. This often results from attempting to impose an inappropriate paradigm on the user interface, or from some limitations on the hardware, or from an ill-conceived idea of what "complex" means. (I have an answering machine that has just one button. It is a pain in the ass to use. The one that has ten buttons is lots simpler. Each button does one thing. Jose Panel mount navigators are actually much more complex (and far less capable) than FMS/LNAV systems on high-end biz jets and modern airliners. This is the result of cost and panel space limitations in small, light aircraft. |
#25
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GPS vs ADF
Jose,
The problem is when things are =unnecessarily= complex. True. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#26
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GPS vs ADF
Sam Spade wrote:
Michael wrote: I wouldn't even attempt to use any other panel mount without a similar amount of learning and practice. I also find using the 530 in a single pilot environment without an autopilot to be a excessive knob twisting, bad human-factors situation. *** A decent controller will know it too. "Turn left 270, direct CEDES when able". Key to comfort with the 430 for me was to get proficient at flying pieces of flight plans and approaches. ATC will "help" you by giving you shortcuts. At SQL they always give me "direct AMEBY", which is not an IAF. Or they will give you a vector to join an airway. It's important to know how to do these things before blasting off into IMC. (Hint: [FPL][DIRECT] or [FPL][DIRECT][DIRECT] ) - Jerry Kaidor ( ) |
#27
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GPS vs ADF
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#28
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GPS vs ADF
Sam Spade wrote:
Nonetheless, there is far too much knob twisting required to enter or modify a flight plan, etc, for one person to do it and try to hand fly the aircraft at the same time. Less knob twisting on the 480. Once you're at a known place, the possible Airways out are on hot keys and the exit points from those airways are easily scrolled up. |
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