So there I was in June 1996. 35 years old, finally got my first professional pilot job and learning the meaning of the phrase "Drinking from a firehose." during ATR systems ground school at Flight Safety Hobby. I was having lunch with a group of classmates one day when someone asked how I was coming with my flows.
Uhhh...... What's a flow?
Commercial aircraft use two different philosophies when it comes to getting an airplane ready to fly. One is to use a checklist as a "Do list", where each item is read and done. Others use it as a true checklist, where each segment of flight (Preflight, Before Engine Start, After Engine Start, etc) has a "flow" accomplished where systems are turned on or off, then the checklist verifies the correct setting.
While you'd think that aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Embraer, etc would have their flows and checklists wrtten in stone, this is not true, as each airline has their own operational preference depending on their past history. It's pretty interesting to jumpseat on Alaska, Southwest, and my own airline and see radically different ways of getting the same type of airplane ready to fly. In fact, one of the biggest operational challenges at my airline during our merger has been the melding of the different styles, and our checklists/flows have gone through a couple iterations, with each airline believing their way is best.
Over the last couple years I've visited the factory a few times, and attended a couple Garner's Landing fly-ins. In each visit I took photos of other SeaRey instrument panels, and I've also availed myself of threads on the private SeaRey Tech site. I've seen good and bad things, debated and sketched ideas, and my panel is a distillation of what I've learned from everyone else, filtered through my own experiences. Oddly, I also reached way, way back into another part of my life when I was in retail sales. Building displays I learned that our eyes scan horizontally, so we were taught to build our displays with like items in vertical rows to interrupt this scan and get peoples attention. (Check it out next time you're at the mall.) If I have a horizontal flow it moves better, but it also encourages scanning and skipping, especially when fatigued or complacent. A vertical flow is less natural, but by interrupting the natural flow it forces you to pay attention.
So there I was last week, sitting in a cold hangar making zoom-zoom airplane noises and pretending to go through my checklists. I'm using XPanel 5000 to help design my panel, it lets me mess around while I'm on the road and play with different setups.
In this picture I'm concentrating on the left wing panel, and the location of the battery switch, primary fuel pump switch, and the ignition switch.
+(Large).jpg)
Should I have the battery power on the bottom right, and my power-up flow is upward, turning the battery switch on, then the primary fuel pump? That way when powering down the flow reverses, and I turn the fuel pump switch off/down, followed naturally downward by the battery switch.
Or should I place the battery switch in the upper left and the fuel pump in the upper right, so my flow goes left-right/right-left?
Each version has pros and cons. I'll have to think about it, hopefully without overthinking it.
Moving on, across the top are the caution/alert lights for various systems. An analog airspeed indicator is prominently located in the center for easy reference by either pilot. Digital instruments and readouts have their uses, but they require the numbers to be read, interpreted, analyzed, and acted on. In the low altitude seaplanes operate in, this can result in too much time taken away from flying the airplane with fatal results, and a few years ago when digital panels started coming into vogue some SeaRey pilots reintroduced this low tech instrument to their panels. It's a great idea, when doing a glassy water landing you don't need to know that you're at 71, 72, or 73 knots, you just need to know that your speed in "this far" in the green and stable. Or that it's "about there" approaching the bottom of the arc, and you better get some smash back into the plane.
There's a bit of concern about where I have the vertical card compass, it should be 4" away from any other electrical component (such as a radio), and that might change, I might relocated the compass and put an analog altimeter in there. Both will feed off the Skyview.
The PAR100EX has a built-in intercom, one less box on the panel but another one inside.
The backup fuel pump for the Rotax 914 is next to the Dynon. I want it located where I'll remember to turn it on/off for landing, not buried in the switches on the far right (more on those later), but I also don't want it in the way where it will easily get turned off by accident.Sitting in the airplane it seems to be ok.....
The red CHECK GEAR sign is over an ACI Gear Alert System. This "Bitching Betty" verbally prompts you to select either a water or ground landing, and checks if the position of the gear is correct. If the gear is in the incorrect position, in a voice like a high speed blender grinding a hunk of copper wire she seductively whispers for you to fix it. Now.
I wasn't going to install a Gear Alert System. After all, I'm a professional pilot and wannabe junior SkyGod. But after listening to some real SkyGods I changed my mind and will be putting one in. Gear switches and lights, and a simple mnemonic that will hopefully keep me out of trouble are next.
The green squares are another ACI product, with pushbutton selection of 4 flap positions (up, 10, 22 or 30 degrees). No holding down a momentary ON switch to retract or extend flaps, just PTFB and get them up or down.
Note the switches. The row on top is systems, the bottom row is lighting. Remember what I was saying about flows? The lights also serve as confirmation of each checklist step, since the last item in each checklist is a light of some kind. Power up? Nav lights. Before start? Beacon. After start? Landing/taxi lights. Cleared for takeoff? Strobes. So by the time you're ready to go flying the entire bottom row should be up, shutting down they should all be down. That's the theory, at least.
The far right wing panel gets the ELT controls, there will be a clip for a iPod, and a 12v aux power output that will also serve as an input for trickle battery charger or GPU for starting.
Like they say, no plan survives the first shot, so this is all subject to change. But for now, it looks good.
Uhhh...... What's a flow?
Commercial aircraft use two different philosophies when it comes to getting an airplane ready to fly. One is to use a checklist as a "Do list", where each item is read and done. Others use it as a true checklist, where each segment of flight (Preflight, Before Engine Start, After Engine Start, etc) has a "flow" accomplished where systems are turned on or off, then the checklist verifies the correct setting.
While you'd think that aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Embraer, etc would have their flows and checklists wrtten in stone, this is not true, as each airline has their own operational preference depending on their past history. It's pretty interesting to jumpseat on Alaska, Southwest, and my own airline and see radically different ways of getting the same type of airplane ready to fly. In fact, one of the biggest operational challenges at my airline during our merger has been the melding of the different styles, and our checklists/flows have gone through a couple iterations, with each airline believing their way is best.
Over the last couple years I've visited the factory a few times, and attended a couple Garner's Landing fly-ins. In each visit I took photos of other SeaRey instrument panels, and I've also availed myself of threads on the private SeaRey Tech site. I've seen good and bad things, debated and sketched ideas, and my panel is a distillation of what I've learned from everyone else, filtered through my own experiences. Oddly, I also reached way, way back into another part of my life when I was in retail sales. Building displays I learned that our eyes scan horizontally, so we were taught to build our displays with like items in vertical rows to interrupt this scan and get peoples attention. (Check it out next time you're at the mall.) If I have a horizontal flow it moves better, but it also encourages scanning and skipping, especially when fatigued or complacent. A vertical flow is less natural, but by interrupting the natural flow it forces you to pay attention.
So there I was last week, sitting in a cold hangar making zoom-zoom airplane noises and pretending to go through my checklists. I'm using XPanel 5000 to help design my panel, it lets me mess around while I'm on the road and play with different setups.
In this picture I'm concentrating on the left wing panel, and the location of the battery switch, primary fuel pump switch, and the ignition switch.
+(Large).jpg)
Should I have the battery power on the bottom right, and my power-up flow is upward, turning the battery switch on, then the primary fuel pump? That way when powering down the flow reverses, and I turn the fuel pump switch off/down, followed naturally downward by the battery switch.
Or should I place the battery switch in the upper left and the fuel pump in the upper right, so my flow goes left-right/right-left?
Each version has pros and cons. I'll have to think about it, hopefully without overthinking it.
Moving on, across the top are the caution/alert lights for various systems. An analog airspeed indicator is prominently located in the center for easy reference by either pilot. Digital instruments and readouts have their uses, but they require the numbers to be read, interpreted, analyzed, and acted on. In the low altitude seaplanes operate in, this can result in too much time taken away from flying the airplane with fatal results, and a few years ago when digital panels started coming into vogue some SeaRey pilots reintroduced this low tech instrument to their panels. It's a great idea, when doing a glassy water landing you don't need to know that you're at 71, 72, or 73 knots, you just need to know that your speed in "this far" in the green and stable. Or that it's "about there" approaching the bottom of the arc, and you better get some smash back into the plane.
There's a bit of concern about where I have the vertical card compass, it should be 4" away from any other electrical component (such as a radio), and that might change, I might relocated the compass and put an analog altimeter in there. Both will feed off the Skyview.
The PAR100EX has a built-in intercom, one less box on the panel but another one inside.
The backup fuel pump for the Rotax 914 is next to the Dynon. I want it located where I'll remember to turn it on/off for landing, not buried in the switches on the far right (more on those later), but I also don't want it in the way where it will easily get turned off by accident.Sitting in the airplane it seems to be ok.....
The red CHECK GEAR sign is over an ACI Gear Alert System. This "Bitching Betty" verbally prompts you to select either a water or ground landing, and checks if the position of the gear is correct. If the gear is in the incorrect position, in a voice like a high speed blender grinding a hunk of copper wire she seductively whispers for you to fix it. Now.
I wasn't going to install a Gear Alert System. After all, I'm a professional pilot and wannabe junior SkyGod. But after listening to some real SkyGods I changed my mind and will be putting one in. Gear switches and lights, and a simple mnemonic that will hopefully keep me out of trouble are next.
The green squares are another ACI product, with pushbutton selection of 4 flap positions (up, 10, 22 or 30 degrees). No holding down a momentary ON switch to retract or extend flaps, just PTFB and get them up or down.
Note the switches. The row on top is systems, the bottom row is lighting. Remember what I was saying about flows? The lights also serve as confirmation of each checklist step, since the last item in each checklist is a light of some kind. Power up? Nav lights. Before start? Beacon. After start? Landing/taxi lights. Cleared for takeoff? Strobes. So by the time you're ready to go flying the entire bottom row should be up, shutting down they should all be down. That's the theory, at least.
The far right wing panel gets the ELT controls, there will be a clip for a iPod, and a 12v aux power output that will also serve as an input for trickle battery charger or GPU for starting.
Like they say, no plan survives the first shot, so this is all subject to change. But for now, it looks good.
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