More electronic gadgets = lower IQ?

;-) Perhaps we can infer a correlation between the proliferation of electronic gadgets in our cockpits with the dumbing down of glider pilots? There are Standford University studies that indicate that multitasking can lower your IQ or that "people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time".
http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbr...udies-suggest/
RAS posts seem to verify these studies!
So, the obvious solution is to dump all the spendy computers, fly with basic instruments, enjoy the scenery, and preserve the gray matter!
Fly safe and have fun.

Le mardi 21 octobre 2014 16:08:15 UTC-4, Craig R. a écrit*:
;-) Perhaps we can infer a correlation between the proliferation of electronic gadgets in our cockpits with the dumbing down of glider pilots? There are Standford University studies that indicate that multitasking can lower your IQ or that "people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbr...udies-suggest/

RAS posts seem to verify these studies!

So, the obvious solution is to dump all the spendy computers, fly with basic instruments, enjoy the scenery, and preserve the gray matter!

Fly safe and have fun.

Hi
Sometime I think you are right. One club member I fly with has been flying for 45 years.
Is current glider is a ASG 29 with one vario, a 45 years old Badin type 100 mechanical vario, nothing else. Take off first fly all over the place land last. I wonder???
Gilles

On Tue, 21 Oct 2014 13:08:15 -0700, Craig R. wrote:

;-) Perhaps we can infer a correlation between the proliferation of
electronic gadgets in our cockpits with the dumbing down of glider
pilots? There are Standford University studies that indicate that
multitasking can lower your IQ or that "people who are regularly
bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay
attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well
as those who complete one task at a time".
http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbr.../multitasking-
damages-your-brain-and-career-new-studies-suggest/
RAS posts seem to verify these studies!
So, the obvious solution is to dump all the spendy computers, fly with
basic instruments, enjoy the scenery, and preserve the gray matter!
Fly safe and have fun.

Hmmm. Apart from the usual aircraft instruments, (Alt,ASI,compass,radio)
I carry:

- two varios - both happen to be electronic
- one electronic nav system (LK8000), which I reckon is less
distracting than periodically fiddling with a paper map
- one FLARM display

I'd be interested to know chucking out the FLARM, replacing the varios
with a mechanical one and using a folding map in place of the
automatically scrolling one is supposed to keep me safe and reduce
cockpit workload. A mechanical vario means more head in cockpit time
because you have to look at it instead of listening to an electronic one.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

s6 wrote, On 10/21/2014 1:27 PM:
Le mardi 21 octobre 2014 16:08:15 UTC-4, Craig R. a �crit�:
;-) Perhaps we can infer a correlation between the proliferation
of electronic gadgets in our cockpits with the dumbing down of
glider pilots? There are Standford University studies that indicate
that multitasking can lower your IQ or that "people who are
regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information
cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to
another as well as those who complete one task at a time".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbr...udies-suggest/



RAS posts seem to verify these studies!

So, the obvious solution is to dump all the spendy computers, fly
with basic instruments, enjoy the scenery, and preserve the gray
matter!

Fly safe and have fun.

Hi Sometime I think you are right. One club member I fly with has
been flying for 45 years. Is current glider is a ASG 29 with one
vario, a 45 years old Badin type 100 mechanical vario, nothing else.
Take off first fly all over the place land last. I wonder??? Gilles

Unless your club member also flies contests or posts on the OLC, you
don't really know how efficiently and effectively he is flying. If it's
been a long time in the same place, he doesn't need navigation
equipment, and staying up a long time isn't difficult in an area one
knows well.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl

Snippage...

...Sometime I think you are right. One club member I fly with has been
flying for 45 years. Is current glider is a ASG 29 with one vario, a 45
years old Badin type 100 mechanical vario, nothing else. Take off first
fly all over the place land last. I wonder??? Gilles

Unless your club member also flies contests or posts on the OLC, you don't
really know how efficiently and effectively he is flying. If it's been a
long time in the same place, he doesn't need navigation equipment, and
staying up a long time isn't difficult in an area one knows well.


Oookay - winter must be approaching in the northern hemisphere. :-)

Coupla comments...
- Certainly contests and OLC are helpful gauges of "soaring efficiency and
effectiveness" but, somehow or other, along the way I concluded people enjoy
the sport for a heckuva lot more reasons than "just" those two. SOMEthing
must've been keeping Gilles' fellow clubmember at it for the more than 3
decades he or she was at it before OLC came on the scene! Just my guess, of
course. If a person's having fun at soaring all their life, who am I to care
whether or not they're being efficient and effective, so long as they're being
safe and are happy. Everyone associated with the sport benefits. JMO...
- Regarding navigation, as one having gained the bulk of his soaring time
around mountains (Alleghenies and Rockies), I long felt no sectional was
necessary once a person had learned "their local area" - which of course might
easily have a radius of hundreds of miles. But then a friend broke his PIK-20
on a (horribly) botched outlanding in the mountains, not 35 air-miles from our
home field. His excuse at the time? "I couldn't find the airfield my sectional
said was in the valley!" So after commiserating with him for a while on the
grief he'd caused himself, we got around to the twin facts that he wasn't in
the valley he thought he was, and, the airfield didn't exist in any event.
Worse, had he flown his pattern properly - and into the wind (!) - the forest
opening that miraculously appeared when he absolutely needed one, would've
likely been landable damage-free. I'm sure there are several morals in this
dubious tale. The good news is my friend stuck with it and at least didn't
repeat his errors...
- As for staying aloft and soaring, in the intermountain west, the biggest
obstacle to doing so in the absence of airspeed and vario was - I found -
belief in one's ability to do so. XC soaring sans functioning ASI was
trivially easy, XC w/o functioning vario only slightly less so, while I had to
convince myself that I could (relatively) easily remain aloft without both,
before daring to venture XC. I blame all those experiences on water in the
lines and cheapness. No FARS were violated and no damage was inflicted on the
sailplane in the learning of these things...

Bob W.

BobW wrote, On 10/21/2014 8:04 PM:
Snippage...

...Sometime I think you are right. One club member I fly with has been
flying for 45 years. Is current glider is a ASG 29 with one vario, a 45
years old Badin type 100 mechanical vario, nothing else. Take off first
fly all over the place land last. I wonder??? Gilles

Unless your club member also flies contests or posts on the OLC, you
don't
really know how efficiently and effectively he is flying. If it's been a
long time in the same place, he doesn't need navigation equipment, and
staying up a long time isn't difficult in an area one knows well.


Oookay - winter must be approaching in the northern hemisphere. :-)

Coupla comments...
- Certainly contests and OLC are helpful gauges of "soaring efficiency
and effectiveness" but, somehow or other, along the way I concluded
people enjoy the sport for a heckuva lot more reasons than "just" those
two. SOMEthing must've been keeping Gilles' fellow clubmember at it for
the more than 3 decades he or she was at it before OLC came on the
scene! Just my guess, of course. If a person's having fun at soaring all
their life, who am I to care whether or not they're being efficient and
effective, so long as they're being safe and are happy. Everyone
associated with the sport benefits. JMO...

The comments weren't intended to reflect on your club member's abilities
or happiness! Instead, it was directed at the idea that "a lot" of
instruments might make a pilot "dumber" and less effective. My
experience is going fast and far safely, especially in less familiar
places, is much easier with a moving map soaring computer and audio
vario; conversely, at my home field, when wandering around
opportunistically, they aren't much benefit.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl

At 05:29 22 October 2014, Eric Greenwell wrote:
BobW wrote, On 10/21/2014 8:04 PM:


...Sometime I think you are right. One club member I fly with has
been
flying for 45 years. Is current glider is a ASG 29 with one vario, a
45
years old Badin type 100 mechanical vario, nothing else. Take off
first
fly all over the place land last. I wonder??? Gilles

Unless your club member also flies contests or posts on the OLC, you
don't
really know how efficiently and effectively he is flying. If it's been
a
long time in the same place, he doesn't need navigation equipment, and
staying up a long time isn't difficult in an area one knows well.


Oookay - winter must be approaching in the northern hemisphere. :-)

Coupla comments...
- Certainly contests and OLC are helpful gauges of "soaring efficiency
and effectiveness" but, somehow or other, along the way I concluded
people enjoy the sport for a heckuva lot more reasons than "just" those
two. SOMEthing must've been keeping Gilles' fellow clubmember at it for
the more than 3 decades he or she was at it before OLC came on the
scene! Just my guess, of course. If a person's having fun at soaring
all
their life, who am I to care whether or not they're being efficient and
effective, so long as they're being safe and are happy. Everyone
associated with the sport benefits. JMO...

The comments weren't intended to reflect on your club member's abilities
or happiness! Instead, it was directed at the idea that "a lot" of
instruments might make a pilot "dumber" and less effective. My
experience is going fast and far safely, especially in less familiar
places, is much easier with a moving map soaring computer and audio
vario; conversely, at my home field, when wandering around
opportunistically, they aren't much benefit.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg.../download-the-
guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl

Le mardi 21 octobre 2014 16:08:15 UTC-4, Craig R. a écrit*:
;-) Perhaps we can infer a correlation between the proliferation of electronic gadgets in our cockpits with the dumbing down of glider pilots? There are Standford University studies that indicate that multitasking can lower your IQ or that "people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbr...udies-suggest/

RAS posts seem to verify these studies!

So, the obvious solution is to dump all the spendy computers, fly with basic instruments, enjoy the scenery, and preserve the gray matter!

Fly safe and have fun.

Hi
My comment was about vario sophistication. My friend has a Nano and a Garmin
for navigation.
It was also a reflection on my obsessive quest for a better vario.
Gilles

On Wed, 22 Oct 2014 04:10:18 -0700, s6 wrote:

Le mardi 21 octobre 2014 16:08:15 UTC-4, Craig R. a écritÂ*:
;-) Perhaps we can infer a correlation between the proliferation of
electronic gadgets in our cockpits with the dumbing down of glider
pilots? There are Standford University studies that indicate that
multitasking can lower your IQ or that "people who are regularly
bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay
attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as
well as those who complete one task at a time".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbr.../multitasking-
damages-your-brain-and-career-new-studies-suggest/

RAS posts seem to verify these studies!

So, the obvious solution is to dump all the spendy computers, fly with
basic instruments, enjoy the scenery, and preserve the gray matter!

Fly safe and have fun.

Hi My comment was about vario sophistication. My friend has a Nano and a
Garmin for navigation.
It was also a reflection on my obsessive quest for a better vario.
Gilles

I'm happy with my old SDI C4 an (I think) even older Borgelt B.40. Both
make nice noises of the appropriate type and the B.40 has a really fast
response.

Conversely, a friend recently installed an S.3 and is less than delighted
with its sounds and especially with its lack of a silent band between
zero and -1 kts.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

If we take this electronic gadget stuff to the logical conclusion...we will let the computer fly the glider and the "pilot" will just sit there....

They tell us that "driverless automobiles" are just a few years off.

Driverless cars will save 30,000 lives per year in the USA...accidents will be nearly non existent...they will reduce fuel usage tremendously....they will allow more cars on a highway at a given time, yet reduce traffic jams. You will always be on time, nobody will get any traffic tickets nor will they have to pay any fines.

Computer cars will require nearly zero skill and intelligence to operate!


So if you are looking for safety and efficiency in glider flying...eliminate the weak link...the pilot!

Cookie



On Tuesday, October 21, 2014 4:08:15 PM UTC-4, Craig R. wrote:
;-) Perhaps we can infer a correlation between the proliferation of electronic gadgets in our cockpits with the dumbing down of glider pilots? There are Standford University studies that indicate that multitasking can lower your IQ or that "people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time".
If we take this electronic gadget stuff to the logical conclusion...we will let the computer fly the glider and the "pilot" will just sit there....

They tell us that "driverless automobiles" are just a few years off.

Driverless cars will save 30,000 lives per year in the USA...accidents will be nearly non existent...they will reduce fuel usage tremendously....they will allow more cars on a highway at a given time, yet reduce traffic jams. You will always be on time.

They will require nearly zero skill and intelligence to operate!

Cooie


http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbr...udies-suggest/

RAS posts seem to verify these studies!

So, the obvious solution is to dump all the spendy computers, fly with basic instruments, enjoy the scenery, and preserve the gray matter!

Fly safe and have fun.