Cool attitude indicator

Everyone has seen those "Laser Levels" advertised on TV. I own one,
and (although it's relatively useless) it's very cool.

Wouldn't it be slick to have a gyro-stabilized thin red line projected
onto your panel, graphically displaying the actual horizon? Talk about
situational awareness in the 21st century! You would have to be blind
not to see which way was up...

This sounds like science fiction (or, at least, it did to me) -- so
imagine my surprise when I found that this very system was used in the
SR-71 Blackbird -- a plane that was designed and built over 40 years
ago.

Who'd a thunk it?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

The AI is an instrument that's overdue for better human engineering.

Almost everyone's had a moment of confusion figuring out which way the
plane was banking, because of the way the horizon moves but the
airplane "wings" stay level.

I believe NASA's done studies showing that if you simply had the
current AI's "wings" tilt towards the side you were turning, pilots had
no problem instantly understanding their situation.

I seem to recall ads in old magazines pushing a visual horizon line on
the windshield such as you described. I think this was pre-laser.

I also saw a neat AI from the '60s on eBay that actually had a little
dome protuding towards you, with a tiny model airplane inside. If you
were banking / diving the little plane was too. Very cool.

Cheers, Kev

In a previous article, "Kev" said:
The AI is an instrument that's overdue for better human engineering.

Almost everyone's had a moment of confusion figuring out which way the
plane was banking, because of the way the horizon moves but the
airplane "wings" stay level.

Russian/Soviet AIs do the opposite - the horizon line is fixed and the
little airplane moves. It must be very confusing for people who had to
switch between "our" sort and "those" sort or back the other way.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
....would you work for a company that couldn't tell the difference in
quality of its employees' normal work product and the work product of
someone on drugs without performing a test? -- socks

(Paul Tomblin) wrote
Russian/Soviet AIs do the opposite - the horizon line is fixed and the
little airplane moves. It must be very confusing for people who had to
switch between "our" sort and "those" sort or back the other way.

Maybe some of them did, but the AI in the YAK-52s that I have
instructed in, had the horizon moving and the airplane fixed.
They were different from the "average" AI however, in that the
horizon ball was gimbled in an almost free fashion and had no
stops that would cause a "flip" during loops and rolls. The
downside of this arrangement was that the "blue" side was on
the bottom when "staight and level" and when pitching-up, the
horizon line on the ball moved up showing more of the Blue-On-
The-Bottom.

Bob Moore

Kev wrote:

I believe NASA's done studies showing that if you simply had the
current AI's "wings" tilt towards the side you were turning, pilots had
no problem instantly understanding their situation.

The very first AIs, then developed in Germany, worked that way, and
studies seem to imply that it's more intuitive. This design is still in
use in the countries of the former soviet union and their region of
influence. The AI as it is known in our part of the world was designed
by Sperry, IIRC, and I think it was at least partly a matter of
copyright to do it the way they have.

Pilots who were trained in eastern Europe and then are hired by western
companies have to be retrained, which is extremely difficult. In a
stress situation, you allways tend to fall back to the procedures
learned in primary training. There was at least one airliner crash which
was the direct result of this: Easterly trained pilots flying a westerly
equipped plane with inadequate training, consequently misinterpreting
the AI in a situation of high workload. The report is well worth a
reading: http://www.bfu.admin.ch/common/pdf/1781_e

Stefan

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 20:26:14 +0200, Stefan
wrote:

Kev wrote:

I believe NASA's done studies showing that if you simply had the
current AI's "wings" tilt towards the side you were turning, pilots had
no problem instantly understanding their situation.

The very first AIs, then developed in Germany, worked that way, and
studies seem to imply that it's more intuitive. This design is still in
use in the countries of the former soviet union and their region of
influence. The AI as it is known in our part of the world was designed
by Sperry, IIRC, and I think it was at least partly a matter of
copyright to do it the way they have.

Pilots who were trained in eastern Europe and then are hired by western
companies have to be retrained, which is extremely difficult. In a
stress situation, you allways tend to fall back to the procedures
learned in primary training. There was at least one airliner crash which
was the direct result of this: Easterly trained pilots flying a westerly
equipped plane with inadequate training, consequently misinterpreting
the AI in a situation of high workload. The report is well worth a
reading: http://www.bfu.admin.ch/common/pdf/1781_e

I have a buddy with a PhD in human-factors engineering (Purdue). I
gather from him that the phenomenon of figure-ground reversal as it
relates to flight instruments has been studied to death through the
years, There must be a couple of standard texts. I'll ask him the
next time I talk to him if I don't have a brain-fart.

I also imagine there's a lot of documentation at the Air Force Flight
Test Center at Edwards, but it's probably hard to search for.

Don

The very first AIs, then developed in Germany, worked that way, and
studies seem to imply that it's more intuitive.

that's a funny statement. I worked for a Germany company for 5 years
and lived in MUC for a couple. German engineering is great if it has
been refined for many years like their automotive companies. Newer
German designed equipment makes no sense at all. My company had
some equipment with left-handed screws (worse yet it would jam if
you "opened" the screw by turning it to the left when locked).
I just did my German taxes using a German program. To go forward,
you would hit the Zuruck button which means "back." Even my German
friend who was helping me told me to "Shut up. I know it's crazy.
It's German."

nevertheless, having the plane tilt is probably a better concept.
After all, on the TC, the plane moves and not the backing. Now
that I am programmed for the non-USSR-designed AI, I'll stick with it
as I can't imagine how long it would take for me to change.

Gerald Sylvester

To go forward,
you would hit the Zuruck button which means "back."

I'm contemplating the bottom left of my computer screen, and thinking of
Abbot and Costello.

Jose
--
Get high on gasoline: fly an airplane.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

G. Sylvester wrote:

I just did my German taxes using a German program. To go forward,
you would hit the Zuruck button which means "back."

I know a cetain operating system which requires you to click on "start"
to turn it off... Incidentally, it's not a German design.
:-P

Stefan

"Stefan" wrote in message
...
I know a cetain operating system which requires you to click on "start" to
turn it off

It also requires you to click "start" to run programs. To change settings.
To view files. To search for files.

In other words, in that context, it ought to be pretty obvious to all but
the most dim-witted that you might find a whole host of interesting
functions, like turning off the computer, there.

Why people continue to insist bring this up as if it's some failure of user
interface design, I have no idea.

I have heard there's another OS that puts the "turn off" function under a
menu named "Special". What's so special about turning off the computer?
And why aren't activities that are truly special not found there?

Pete