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Old August 14th 06, 05:02 AM posted to rec.aviation.homebuilt,rec.aviation.piloting
Ernest Christley
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Posts: 199
Default Cockpit video displays. Was: Get Rid Of Warbirds At Oshkosh

Dudley Henriques wrote:

Now, as for your TV screen on the panel; it's no good for several reasons.
First of all, even if simply included in your taxi scan, it takes the scan
inside the cockpit then outside again which is bad, since a great deal of
the visual cues involved in taxiing these airplanes are based on a visual
cue received during a horizontal movement of the nose projecting a safe path
for a projected FUTURE TIME LINE, and not where the nose is pointed NOW!.
Secondly, any screen small enough to be placed in a fighter panel would not
be projecting an image in life size, and that alone brings an additional
mental calculation into the futures equation as to exactly how far ahead of
the airplane any viewed image in the screen might be.


If you're using the screen to judge how far you can move, you're using
it wrong.

Those big round mirrors on the front corners of 18-wheelers. Drivers
don't use 'em to back into a parking space at a crowded truck stop.
They only tell you if there is ANYTHING at your side. If you see
anything in the big ball, you don't move until you can eyeball it. You
don't waste time trying to identify or mentally place it in relation to
yourself. You just stop any motion toward it.

Same with a video screen. It should have a fish-eye camera, and it's
only a warning system. The Avenger pilot didn't know the RV was there.
I guarantee you he would have hit the brakes and not moved if he
suspected what we now know. The fish-eye camera won't tell you how far
away the other guy is, but it let's you know he's there.

Yes there is delay in the notification from wingwalkers. But, good god
people, how fast were they taxiing in those crowded conditions. All you
need is something to say, "Danger. Danger, Will Robinson." Once the
presence of a danger is indicated, prudent people will stop and
investigate. That is all that's necessary to keep pilots from taxiing
onto one another.

--
This is by far the hardest lesson about freedom. It goes against
instinct, and morality, to just sit back and watch people make
mistakes. We want to help them, which means control them and their
decisions, but in doing so we actually hurt them (and ourselves)."