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737NG Flight Instruments


blues deville

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The link is a photo of a CO 737-800. If you look closely you can see the inboard and outboard displays have a full six pack selection rather than a PFD/ND combination. I suppose its due to the fact they also operate -500 series with round dials. I think Southwest also has this customer option on their NGs. Seems like a waste of technology but I guess it allows all 737 pilots to operate all 737 types. Did Westjet do this when they added their NGs to the fleet or did they separate the -200 aircraft and pilots?

bd

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Continental-Airlines/Boeing-737-824/1797455/M/

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The link is a photo of a CO 737-800. If you look closely you can see the inboard and outboard displays have a full six pack selection rather than a PFD/ND combination. I suppose its due to the fact they also operate -500 series with round dials. I think Southwest also has this customer option on their NGs. Seems like a waste of technology but I guess it allows all 737 pilots to operate all 737 types. Did Westjet do this when they added their NGs to the fleet or did they separate the -200 aircraft and pilots?

bd

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Continental-Airlines/Boeing-737-824/1797455/M/

The Pilots were separated for the two types to embrace the newer tech. Something Southwest should have done and is now doing to improve efficiency.

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Or perhapst their human factors specialist in their flight safety department felt that a round guage and a needle presented better information (airspeed for example) than a scrolling tape and rotating digits with various arrows and colours. The newer flight displays present a lot of good info when everyone is calm and in a state of mind to process all that data but when the adrenaline starts pumping the mind won't be able to process all those tiny bits of info. In my opinion a quick glance at a needle to determine its relevant position and motion would make more of an impact than the current airspeed displays used on PFDs. There were 3 hull losses in 5 weeks in 2009 due to stalls on approach. How much the flight displays helped/hindered the flight crews while attempting recoveries would be interesting to know.

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Or perhapst their human factors specialist in their flight safety department felt that a round guage and a needle presented better information (airspeed for example) than a scrolling tape and rotating digits with various arrows and colours. The newer flight displays present a lot of good info when everyone is calm and in a state of mind to process all that data but when the adrenaline starts pumping the mind won't be able to process all those tiny bits of info. In my opinion a quick glance at a needle to determine its relevant position and motion would make more of an impact than the current airspeed displays used on PFDs. There were 3 hull losses in 5 weeks in 2009 due to stalls on approach. How much the flight displays helped/hindered the flight crews while attempting recoveries would be interesting to know.

I believe the prevalent argument in the pilot community revolves around basic piloting skills and the over-reliance on automation versus the shape of the instruments. Personally, I find the scan on the modern PFD is much easier than the old six pack. Even during upset recovery training.

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Critter, I understand what you are saying but the sim will never simulate a real full on heart pounding "catastrophy around the corner" moment. I also agree that this relatively recent issue of in-flight loss of control has many facets beyond just an airspeed indicator but it would be worthy of further discussion. Another interesting angle on the issue mentioned was Airbus and Boeing's change on how stalls are to be trained in the sim and recovery techniques used. Has anyone here seen a change in the training department with regards to "powering" out of the condition vs reducing the angle of attack, levelling the wings and then adding thrust? (Sorry to change the topic yet again).

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