A wacky idea

Is it not possible to have buttons inside the cockpit that perform a
set of checklist actions that pilots normally do at various phases of
flight and save pilots that bother? I'd have thought it nice for a
button to activate an electronic pre-flight check and report an AOK


Ramapriya

I'd have thought it nice for a
button to activate an electronic pre-flight check and report an AOK

Would you trust it?

Jose
--
Freedom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

we do... it's called a "voice actuated co-pilot"

B

"Ramapriya" wrote in message
om...
Is it not possible to have buttons inside the cockpit that perform a
set of checklist actions that pilots normally do at various phases of
flight and save pilots that bother? I'd have thought it nice for a
button to activate an electronic pre-flight check and report an AOK


Ramapriya

You're right - it is a wacky idea!
I actually prefer hiring an intern to insure that I'll live through the flight.
The "button" would certainly do a better job, though.

Wait - I think I found a plane that has this feature!
Here's a picture of the cockpit and a demo:

http://www.gilbert-land.com/AOK.html

I think I'm going to look into this and potentially purchase this feature!

"Ramapriya" wrote in message
om...
Is it not possible to have buttons inside the cockpit that perform a
set of checklist actions that pilots normally do at various phases of
flight and save pilots that bother? I'd have thought it nice for a
button to activate an electronic pre-flight check and report an AOK

Well, you're still going to need a checklist to check that one button.

Now, let's look seriously at this and see why it's a false idol. One generic
pre-landing checklist is called GUMPS (it's an acronym- pilots love acronyms
for checklists). It can be used on almost every propeller plane from a
little 2-seat trainer to a multi-engine turboprop with small modifications.
It stands for the following items:

Gas- set throttle for landing
Undercarriage- lower landing gear
Mixture- set fuel mixture to full rich
Prop- set landing RPM
Switches- radios on proper frequency

Now, to have a "magic switch" that performs all of these tasks would
actually be quite complicated. The landing gear is just an on-off electrical
switch so that's pretty simple. But the throttle, mixture, and prop are all
mechanical controls, and would require some kind of servomotor to drive
them, just like an autopilot. Now guess what? You're going to need a
checklist to make sure all of those systems work before you depend on them.
So you've made the plane heavier and more complicated but not really saved
the pilot any trouble.

One thing you need to understand is that while the aviation business and
pilots in general love to talk about new technology, we are in fact often
quite conservative about using it. The reason is that new technology is by
definition unproven technology, and the consequences of failure in flight
are often fatal. Compare this to, say, boating. If the engine in your boat
fails, you wait there, drink some beer, and wait for the towboat to show up.
If all your electronics die and you're in terrible fog, you motor along very
slowly back to port so if you hit something, you probably don't sink. And
even if you sink, you probably don't die right away, and many people are
pulled out of the water after all kinds of awful things happened to their
boats. Suffice it to say that the tolerance for errors in airplanes is quite
a bit lower.

-cwk.

PS- May I offer a gentle suggestion that the forum "rec.aviation.student"
would be the best place for many of your questions?

"C Kingsbury" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Ramapriya" wrote in message
om...
Is it not possible to have buttons inside the cockpit that perform a
set of checklist actions that pilots normally do at various phases of
flight and save pilots that bother? I'd have thought it nice for a
button to activate an electronic pre-flight check and report an AOK

Well, you're still going to need a checklist to check that one button.

Now, let's look seriously at this and see why it's a false idol. One
generic
pre-landing checklist is called GUMPS (it's an acronym- pilots love
acronyms
for checklists). It can be used on almost every propeller plane from a
little 2-seat trainer to a multi-engine turboprop with small
modifications.
It stands for the following items:

Gas- set throttle for landing
Undercarriage- lower landing gear
Mixture- set fuel mixture to full rich
Prop- set landing RPM
Switches- radios on proper frequency


Mine are a little different -

Gas - fuel selector on the proper tank
Undercarriage - down and locked
Mixture - set fuel mixture to desired position
Prop - set for desired RPM
Seatbelts - confirm everyone has their seatbelt fastened

Allen

Ramapriya wrote:

Is it not possible to have buttons inside the cockpit that perform a
set of checklist actions that pilots normally do at various phases of
flight and save pilots that bother? I'd have thought it nice for a
button to activate an electronic pre-flight check and report an AOK

Actually, the Thielert diesel does exactly this, at least concerning the
power plant and the prop governor. You press a butten, and the system
does a go/no go decision for you. It does so based on a set of engine
parameters which aren't directly accessible to the pilot.

Stefan

Ramapriya wrote:

Is it not possible to have buttons inside the cockpit that perform a
set of checklist actions that pilots normally do at various phases of
flight and save pilots that bother? I'd have thought it nice for a
button to activate an electronic pre-flight check and report an AOK


I always walk around and check the tires, oil, battery connections,
and etc before a long trip. And that's just my automobile, which I
ensure always stays at 0.0 AGL with no roll, pitch nor yaw.

~D

Allen ) wrote:

Mine are a little different -

Gas - fuel selector on the proper tank
Undercarriage - down and locked
Mixture - set fuel mixture to desired position
Prop - set for desired RPM
Seatbelts - confirm everyone has their seatbelt fastened

Does anyone ever take their seatbelt off in a small aircraft? My
preflight brief instructs the passengers to always leave their belt on.

--
Peter

Seatbelts - confirm everyone has their seatbelt fastened

Does anyone ever take their seatbelt off in a small aircraft? My
preflight brief instructs the passengers to always leave their belt on.

Sometimes people do, for reasons that don't really matter. The time to find out is before the crash, not afterwards.

Jose
--
Freedom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.