A thought
Why is Flying so complicated?
A relatively obvious question….”because airplanes are complicated” is the obvious answer.
However, I wanted to better understand what exactly created the hurdles for somebody to not even consider learning to fly. This week long journey taught me more than I would have ever imagined, opened my eyes to the wonders of flight and even inspired me to, perhaps, one day take to the air myself.
The Language
My first dive into learning about flight, while watching too many videos, I realized that I didn’t understand what the pilot, or radio was saying. It was all code to me.
This purposeful language, to ensure no miscommunication between pilot and ground, pilot and tower and pilot to pilot was a confusing jumble of words to me, until I took some time to learn it.
A little memorization is necessary, but also understanding the structure of the information being passed helped tremendously. Captain Scott (www.askcaptainscott.com) provides a wealth of information and an easy to understand deconstruction of what to say and when.
The cockpit … What the?
If I asked you to imagine a cockpit of an aircraft, what is your first thought? Mine was: “A ton of dials and switches that make no sense at all”. I believe the complexity of an aircraft, paired with the language, created a mental hurdle too large for me to ‘ease’ my way into an interest of flight.
The cockpit IS complex, but that’s only due to aircrafts being complex. Every dial has a purpose, and when you learn that purpose, it becomes less scary and starts to make sense.
However, I did note that there was a recurring thought on the cockpit.
“Which is better: Steam gauges (traditional round gauges) or Glass panels (digital screen)”, and the transition from one to the other may be difficult.
Taking a stab at a transitional interface
Technology has come a long way, creating a more reliable and accurate interface for pilots. However, there may be a disconnect, or learning curve that many pilots experience moving from traditional round gauges to a digital display.
There are things that can be used at a glance, in flight situations, that a digital display just doesn’t provide. I thought “what if there was a ‘transitional’ interface that could help bridge that gap”, and this is my stab at it.
The Six pack
This is the 'Six Pack' from a traditional cockpit. And in VFR flight, you should be spending 90% of the time looking outside, and only 10% checking your instruments. A guick glance provides useful information
The PFD (primary flight display)
The PFD has everything the pilot needs to see, but has changed how information is presented for airspeed, vertical airspeed and the Altimeter. (Garmin G1000 used as an example)
Transitional Concept
Could a change in the interface help transition pilots from steam gauges to digital with an addition of familiarity, while maintaining the accuracy of the PFD?
Adding the familiarity with the accuracy could provide pilots who are used to steam dials a less drastic step change.
However pairing the racing stripe and dial design together created an interesting graphic. Visually, it does complicate the interface more than necessary and would require refinement.
One main challenge was the vertical speed indicator. In the racing stripe design, the Altimeter and vertical speed are side by side (image a), where here, your eyes would need to move to multiple locations to achieve the same goal, similar to the traditional steam gauges.
Could there be a middle ground between Steam and Digital? or is the solution just additional training?
I think I’ll need to get up and fly to really find out.
(Image a)