So much for automation...

Ft. Lauderdale has fog about 2 days per year. Wouldn't you know it but on
the way down to a foggy FLL, one of 500 zillion computers on the
'sophisticated' airplane crapped out. My helper pilot had no localizer or
glideslope information on his screens. I had both needles and flight
director bars. The LOC and GS both showed armed but the airplane never
captured either one. I turned off the useless flight director and autopilot,
and hand-flew a raw data ILS to minimums. So much for automation.

D.

Well, ya know what they say - 99.9% boredom and 0.1% sheer terror...
My compliments, none the less...
Now, I know that the airlines will keep the flight crews capable of
doing what you just did... But I have my reservations about the glass
panel in GA...
Fella on my field, Tim, is doing his IFR rating right now, in his
Mooney with Garmin glass... We were chatting and he commented that his
instructor had said that holds would be challenging...
Tim says, "I don't know why he said that... I just fly to the spot on
the screen, keep the pip on the little racetrack, and follow it around.
Piece of cake."
The hair on the back of my neck literally stood up... I had goose bumps
on my arms when he said that... Yeah, he has a backup Narco with an ILS
head on the other side of the panel... I doubt that he can use it for
real, on a dark night, in turbulence, with sweat fogging his glasses,
leaning way over to the right, and that sick feeling in the pit of his
stomach... And he is the kind of personality who is going to use his
rating to fly real IMC as soon as he is signed off... Gawd help him if
the magic smoke leaks out of the glass panel...

Don't take me wrong.... The revolution in electronics on the panel is
wonderful, but the pilot needs to be able to go back to steam gauges
and shoot an approach to minimums, like you did, when the brown stuff
hits the fan...

denny

Capt.Doug wrote:
Ft. Lauderdale has fog about 2 days per year. Wouldn't you know it but on
the way down to a foggy FLL, one of 500 zillion computers on the
'sophisticated' airplane crapped out. My helper pilot had no localizer or
glideslope information on his screens. I had both needles and flight
director bars. The LOC and GS both showed armed but the airplane never
captured either one. I turned off the useless flight director and autopilot,
and hand-flew a raw data ILS to minimums. So much for automation.

D.



And thankfully some pilots maintain their steam guage abilities and
don't trust the glass stuff to much. I can recall a friend talking
about flying the Airbus after years in the DC9's. He said the most
frequent comment between Capt and FO was ... "Why the hell is it
doing that?".

"Otis Winslow" wrote in message
And thankfully some pilots maintain their steam guage abilities and
don't trust the glass stuff to much. I can recall a friend talking
about flying the Airbus after years in the DC9's. He said the most
frequent comment between Capt and FO was ... "Why the hell is it
doing that?".

The experienced Airbus pilot asks...

Why's it doing that AGAIN?

D.