The UI and Autopilot Elements are not so good to use and look ugly, not so user friendly like the G3000 for example.
Why is this?
Well they’re functional and designed to provide the info flight crew need without being too distracting.
Honeywell have produced a slightly less fugly glass cockpit in recent years.
1 Like
I wouldn’t say they are ugly, but choose function over flash. Since I mostly fly the FBW A320 and PMDG 737, I initially have some issues with the fancy G3000 on the TBM. It can be a bit cumbersome and busy if not used to it. Where as once you are used to the “ugly” one, you’ll find you can get around the menus very quickly and setup your flight plan with less distraction.
3 Likes
FMCs (today aka FMS) are a child of the 70s/80s and represent the state of the technology at that time. That’s why the operation paradigm aka workflow occasionally feels so oddly reversed when you grew up with modern “point and click/touch” interfaces. Crews were trained on these things, so the successor of such a system had to adapt a similar workflow so the crews didn’t have to learn everything from scratch, and competitor systems adapted a similar workflow for the same reason, that’s why they all more or less look and feel like the original Sperry FMC and integration with new display systems (aka “glass”) went through the same choked off line of evolution. Things often evolve slowly in aviation for that reason, and new technologies are often adapted with a delay due to safety concerns, training and certification requirements.
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.