Too many screens in the cockpit?

How many screens is TOO many? I say you can never have too many :)

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00:00 How many screens?!
01:47 Watching others doesn't work too well.
02:50 Why looking up is way more important.
03:56 Reducing the risk
04:49 Tropical island!

[maxfox]

Over the years I've lost 3 friends to mid-air collisions. Looking out .of the window and into your turns will keep you alive. Nice to have all the pretty screens, but in the end, the old MK1 eyeball can be your best friend.

[steveasher]

I'm smiling right now as I remember the old people who used to talk about walking miles in the snow to get to a one room schoolhouse. And now I am one of those old folks (sometimes called "your Elders") remembering one flight when for some reason only my altimeter and ASI worked; no vario and NO screens (didn't even exist then). Very few clouds that day and yet I flew for three hours when the proverbial 'seat of your pants' and 'wingtip' varios still worked.

[MikhailSharpowicz]

I had a competition flight over ten years ago in a borrowed aircraft, where all the electronics slowly failed individually in very irritating and concentration-zapping ways, whilst getting pretty low in a nasty headwind.
When I finally made the decision to just flick off the master switch completely and carry on with just steam instruments, map and Mk1 eyeball it became a blessed relief, and actually enjoyable again. I still came just over mid-way down the pack.
I do love the ease of flying with all the info available on a well set-up and connected Oudie or 9000 size screen, but it is all very manageable without, using just feel, knowledge and use of traditional techniques, and only a little bit slower.

[glennwatson]

Treat it more like a dashboard in a car. In the fixed land world (in Australia at least) we train with ALAP

Attitude, look ahed make sure you're orientated out (using the mark 1 eyeball)
Lookout, lookout in the direction of travel
Atttitude, look ahead again
Performance, glance down at your information/avionics, know what you are glancing at to get the performance data about the phase of flight that you care about at the time, eg plan information/travel information etc.

With this type of scan it keeps you focused on the outside world, but also getting that valuable info that is most relevant to the phase of flight that you wouldn't get exclusively looking outside.

[stumackenzie]

YOU POOR BUGGER !!…. Thanks for interrupting your nirvana for the betterment of the rest of us …. I agree completely with what you’re saying .. Actually, probably, too much information is worse than not enough .. Especially if it’s not ACTUALLY RELEVANT .. You showed the Concord flight deck .. I spent my life peddling 747’s around .. A little over a thousand switches, knobs, dials and buttons plus circuit breakers .. The art of doing it really well was about looking at the right bit at the right time .. Which is what you were saying, of course

[CLdriver]

Good day Tim!
Great subject to discuss on a tropical island 🙂
My limited experience in the cockpit of my sailplane confirmed what you said.
I recently installed a SteFly Nav 70 and competed in a club contest earlier this Spring. I didn’t have a remote control stick at the time, but soon after, I ordered and installed one.
As for XC Soar, I used Condor to experiment and was able to ‘flight test’ the configuration by pairing my Samsung S10 to Condor. When I was happy with the results, I then programmed the Nav 70.
I have multiple pages of information, readily available at the push of a button on the stick. For the most part, my Cruise page has what I need.
Another handy function is the automatic page changing, Auto MC, and Auto zoom functions of XC Soar, which really helps with the Situational Awareness, and helps prevent distraction.
I also installed a FLARM LED at the top of my panel. It’s bright, loud, and provides an instantaneous, easy to read indication of where to look for traffic. In my humble opinion, having aural indication and warning is key to keeping one’s head out of the cockpit.
Have a great vacation!

[GlideYNRG]

I've only flown with my Oudie a few times. It's been handy, logged my " important" flights and I have been interested in what's to learn with it. But you still can't beat a pair of Mk1 eyeballs out of the cockpit. I know things will change up a gear when I finally get my backside into a cross country machine. Something I need to keep a check on.

[SoaringMike]

Interesting topic, thanks Tim! I started gliding, precisely for that unique 'flying feeling' where you can feel one with the machine. A slight bump on one wing and you know that's where the bell is! The brain and your body are busy flying instead of the countless screens that are available today. Searching for thermals also makes gliding very dynamic in my opinion...we also sometimes look down instead of at the clouds. A large parking lot or the roof of the local large supermarket... it's often a hit on a warm day! Instruments that increase safety such as the FLARM are of course welcome, all other screens... I can do without. I would also be in favor of students first proving that they can fly well without all the 'extra's'. Anyone who then wants to turn their cockpit into a command center can go ahead. But I'm glad that my cockpit is one of the few where the senses can work. Keeps old men awake;-)) Enjoy your holiday!

[thaddiushelicon]

Wise words as always. Electronic devices are tools to aid the pilot and are not meant to be a substitute for good piloting skills. What's the most important instrument in the cockpit? The human brain. Use it effectively and you'll never go wrong.

[grinner]

Great video, Tim (and very jealous as I sit here watching biblical UK rain) and I completely agree with all your points. To have ALL the information YOU need to complete whatever task you are doing, immediately accessible, is the most important factor. So many near-misses such a tug upsets, are a result of folk fiddling with the electronics when they should be concentrating on the task in hand. I fly with an LX9000 and maybe one day I’ll get to grips with all it can do. I fly with it so infrequently as I do so much other gliding-related flying such as instructing and examining (not to mention my day job of being an airline pilot), I just don’t have the time or capacity to properly learn it. So I have it set up to give me what I NEED and maybe one day I’ll actually learn what it can actually do for me. Enjoy your holiday!

[braincraven]

Great summary. Here is my preferred list: audio vario, gps location with ads-b or other airplanes, course, and AHORs to cross reference traditional gauges.

[sierragliderpilot]

Less is more, keep it simple. Look out the window!

[Fidd-mcsz]

An airliner cockpit is not relevant to the issue. They fly IFR with separation the responsibility of ATC. VFR flight it's the other way around. Obscuration of the forward-view (by screens) is a potential killer. A glider head on is very difficult to spot, and has a collision speed where it grows from the tiniest speck of minimal frontal area to terrifyingly large in seconds flat. The simple fact is that watching Youtube videos taken from behind of modern glider-pilots shews little or no head movement, which tells me (retired instructor on powered aircraft) their lookout is primarily forwards, and where obscuration of the forward view exists, they're not attempting to clear behind that by moving their head, or by manoeuvring. The proliferation of attached screens within the forward view, and all the additional information so conferred is all excellent - up until the point where two aircraft collide. Additional screens and their placement is not, as far as I'm aware, legislated for in air-law. It should be. Just as the size and placement of a GPS in your car, which obscures your forward view can be illegal. The legislation needs to catch-up with the use of such technology, and obscuration of the forward view be made illegal to fly with? Their placement must also not provide an obstacle to bailing out, nor, as you state, be a potential control-jamming risk, were it to dislodge.

Flying a Pa28 30 years ago, I frightened myself on a cruise leg cross country, by clearing under the nose, and discovering an enormous hot-air balloon climbing out the haze beneath. If I hadn't manoeuvred to look, it's possible I'd have passed very close above or even hit him. If one can get that close to a collision risk with something as large and slow-moving as a hot-air balloon, then if you're not looking out *and* manoeuvring to clear blind-spots, then your survival becomes contingent on the other fellows lookout ALONE. Consequently, anything that obscures your view out is potentially VERY dangerous.

The traffic density in New Zealand may be low enough that lookout is considered necessary but open to being briefly suspended for other tasks. Try that in Europe on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and you may have need of your parachute...

[rederos]

Fully agree, quick scans of instruments and 99% of the time you just gotta look out, and know where you are going. My club has flight computers in all of the advanced gliders, great for navigation, and paired with powerflarm you see where everyone else is. Nor do you use too much time with them when in the air, the stick controls are quite good. My phone stays in my pocket, haven't used it on a flight for years at this point. Mobile data doesn't work anyway so it would be bad even for tracking other traffic. At this point I think I don't even trust my variometer anymore, other than while already in the lift to know the average climb.

[bokusimondesu]

Thanks for skweeezing in the time to make this video in your otherwise fully booked schedule. After all, that hammock does not keep a stable movement in the air, by it self. 👍

[afsx]

Every pilot needs to find out how much information he needs for himself. It's also dependent on how much experience one has. A fresh pilot is best off just having a small glide computer (LX8080 or something), when you become more experienced, the flying doesn't use up as much mental capacity as before, so you have time to look at information on an LX9000 and your phone/glide computer for example. I personally fly with Weglide Copilot on my phone and have an LX9000 in the gliders I fly. I have all the information I need while still looking outside most of the time!

[RoamingAdhocrat]

0:30 excuse me sir. that Concorde has two screens - the replacement vertical speed indicator that include a TCAS display. ok maybe also the radar screens

[bartoszskowronski]

the same philosophy as Mike Patty with Scrappy plane. Search and rescue mission require looking outside as much as possile. And as many screens as possible allow to have everything on one of the screens. quick check something is quivker than look to aionics change what is displayed and then check some parameters.
He put 5 garmin G3x displays into carbon cub. (one for passenger behind)

[soaruk]

There was a HUD system in the 80's for sailplanes, far better than looking down into a cockpit for don't know why it wasn't developed or caught

[audigga]

Aitutaki is the place to be at this time of year!!!!