Nomex Maximus
Well Known Member
User interface improvements...
I have been spending some quality time with the GX-55 GPS simulator the past few days. The GX-55 is what our CAP plane has in it, and it is essential to know how to use it to accomplish CAP SAR missions. I hate the critter but it is very similar to other GPS units so lessons can be learned from it. I am getting used to the GX-55 and the process makes me think that there must be a better way to do things.
1) I hate having to reach up to the control panel for almost any reason, including setting up the GPS unit. I just went up Saturday with a CAP friend and I let him fly us out of GRR. While he was doing that I realized I had taken off with the GPS off, so I needed to turn it on and get it started. Even with only mild turbulence and with the other pilot flying I found it to be borderline laborious and time consuming just to initialize the unit and enter a waypoint. The combination of having to hold your arm up and reach for the big knob / little knob and the turbulence knocking my hand away from the control or causing an incorrect entry was quite frustrating.
A better philosophy for cockpit design I think is to use the control panel primarily for display only. Don't make the pilot reach up to the panel to do anything. Put all user input controls on a console under the pilot's right arm. The arm is always resting on the console for stability and only the hand has to move to manipulate a few simple (software programmable) buttons, knobs or small joystick.
2) I hate the big knob little knob way of doing things whether it is the GPS unit or the radios. Voice control, right arm console, joystick, trackball almost anything would be better. It takes a lot of time at a simulator to learn how and when the two knobs are used for what and there are many cases (in the GX-55, for example) where an errorneous input leaves one in a state where it is not obvious how to clear the entry and start over. It is clear what the reasons were that drove the decision to use the big knob small knob (simple small control to manufacture and program) but I think experience shows it was a poor tradeoff.
3) Don't make the pilot have to do flight plan entry while sitting in the cockpit. The flight plan is usually known before flight time so allow for an offline (i.e, PC based) flight planning tool. The tool would allow all entry of the flight plan before flight while the pilot is sitting at a laptop in the pilot's lounge or whatever. Then transfer the plan to the flight computer with a flash drive or other portable memory device.
4) Provide an optional slide out QWERTY style keyboard under the control panel. It would be so much easier to enter indentifiers with a QWERTY style keyboard than with a big knob little knob or even with an MCDU style keyboard.
-- NM
I have been spending some quality time with the GX-55 GPS simulator the past few days. The GX-55 is what our CAP plane has in it, and it is essential to know how to use it to accomplish CAP SAR missions. I hate the critter but it is very similar to other GPS units so lessons can be learned from it. I am getting used to the GX-55 and the process makes me think that there must be a better way to do things.
1) I hate having to reach up to the control panel for almost any reason, including setting up the GPS unit. I just went up Saturday with a CAP friend and I let him fly us out of GRR. While he was doing that I realized I had taken off with the GPS off, so I needed to turn it on and get it started. Even with only mild turbulence and with the other pilot flying I found it to be borderline laborious and time consuming just to initialize the unit and enter a waypoint. The combination of having to hold your arm up and reach for the big knob / little knob and the turbulence knocking my hand away from the control or causing an incorrect entry was quite frustrating.
A better philosophy for cockpit design I think is to use the control panel primarily for display only. Don't make the pilot reach up to the panel to do anything. Put all user input controls on a console under the pilot's right arm. The arm is always resting on the console for stability and only the hand has to move to manipulate a few simple (software programmable) buttons, knobs or small joystick.
2) I hate the big knob little knob way of doing things whether it is the GPS unit or the radios. Voice control, right arm console, joystick, trackball almost anything would be better. It takes a lot of time at a simulator to learn how and when the two knobs are used for what and there are many cases (in the GX-55, for example) where an errorneous input leaves one in a state where it is not obvious how to clear the entry and start over. It is clear what the reasons were that drove the decision to use the big knob small knob (simple small control to manufacture and program) but I think experience shows it was a poor tradeoff.
3) Don't make the pilot have to do flight plan entry while sitting in the cockpit. The flight plan is usually known before flight time so allow for an offline (i.e, PC based) flight planning tool. The tool would allow all entry of the flight plan before flight while the pilot is sitting at a laptop in the pilot's lounge or whatever. Then transfer the plan to the flight computer with a flash drive or other portable memory device.
4) Provide an optional slide out QWERTY style keyboard under the control panel. It would be so much easier to enter indentifiers with a QWERTY style keyboard than with a big knob little knob or even with an MCDU style keyboard.
-- NM
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