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Linux, Avionics, and spins



Have you ever seen/flown in the cockpit of the A310 Airbus?  I have.  The first
thing that strikes you is that there is no control wheel for either the pilot or
co-pilot.  There is a fold-away desk top in its place.  There are also no gages.
The instrument panel consists of a set of computer readouts, programmable by
pilot to show the information most important for the phase of flight.  If the
pilot chooses, he can 'hand fly' the plane using a side stick control as found in
fighter planes.  S/he doesn't need to, even in landing.  I once flew in an Airbus
where the pilot (left seat) was transitioning from some other aircraft to the
Airbus.  The co-pilot (right seat) was an instructor.  They both had captain's
bars.  We were established on final approach, about 15 miles to touch down with
100 miles visibility, when the student said to the instructor "Autoland?"  The
instructor said "you choice".  The student pressed a button labeled 'autoland'
and no one touched the controls until roll out.  Oh yes, there were 150 paying
passengers in the back.  Hey, those planes are too expensive to fly empty.

The Airbus was developed in Europe beyond the log arm of the FAA.  We are now
seeing that sort of automation in US jets.  The FAA is still trying to implement
the inferior MLS system, on which it spent millions, in place of the cheaper,
more accurate, more reliable GPS navigation system.  You will find GPS in air
transport aircraft soon (maybe even now) because the pilots insist on it.  It
will be a long time until you find it in GA aircraft.  I had loran in my plane
even though I was not legally allowed to use it for instrument navigation.  My
instructor said I should use whatever is available for the safety of the flight.
You use it for situation awareness, a *large* factor in instrument flying.  I
once was in the clouds on a long flight through an area where the loran was
unreliable for 1/2 hour.  That was a long 1/2 hour, but a good refresher.

Karl

Rich Braun wrote:

> If avionics had gone the direction of automotive electronics over the
> last five or ten years, there would be data recorders tucked into every
> plane built in that amount of time which keep fairly long history of
> a variety of environmental conditions, in flash memory where it could
> be retrieved after a crash.
>




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