Random Griz Aviation Musings

[Griz882]

I love helicopters and I love this meme format, so perhaps I am the one who has been played for the absolute fool?

View attachment 43900

The "Piper Cub" bit is particularly excellent.

I know a lot of very, very good STOL pilots…not one could get into or out of a basketball court with the basket posts still up! Besides, you can land two helicopters on a tennis court and not have to remove the net.

 

[hscs]

Or drop a swimmer and then rescue someone….

 

[ChuckMK23]

Back at it. Working through the training backlog while I was on furlough!

 

[ChuckMK23]

Get me a ground power unit and I think I could start it! Former Maryland Guard UH-1V with old school GPS, VOR/LOC/ILS/DME, and lots of comms. (Oddly no TACAN). A fucking nightmare of a instrument layout.

 

[Gatordev]

Some thoughts...While dated by today's standards, it's interesting to compare the ARC-182 to this panel. One -182 can do the work of at least three of those heads. Something you kind of lose sight of when you're used to staring at an absolute beat up -182 Comm Control Panel for hundreds of hours.

Also...It's amazing how many aircraft were equipped with that same APX-100 transponder control head. Apparently who ever the contractor was on that one built something the military kept going back to.

 

[IKE]

Some thoughts...While dated by today's standards, it's interesting to compare the ARC-182 to this panel. One -182 can do the work of at least three of those heads. Something you kind of lose sight of when you're used to staring at an absolute beat up -182 Comm Control Panel for hundreds of hours.

Also...It's amazing how many aircraft were equipped with that same APX-100 transponder control head. Apparently who ever the contractor was on that one built something the military kept going back to.

While I'm not arguing we should return to the days of 20 independent control heads and hundreds of switches/buttons, I do think we swung the pendulum too far with platforms like the current Seahawks. There was something to be said for being able to change your squawk or switch the CMDS into manual without having to navigate through menus and visually close the loop with a glass cockpit. It was also nice not having to pay a prime contractor millions and wait 4+ years for what would've been a simple SW change pushed out by O level maintenance in the old days of federated systems.

 

[ChuckMK23]

Some thoughts...While dated by today's standards, it's interesting to compare the ARC-182 to this panel. One -182 can do the work of at least three of those heads. Something you kind of lose sight of when you're used to staring at an absolute beat up -182 Comm Control Panel for hundreds of hours.

Shows you how tenured and successful the 182 was! I flew the very first 182 installations in 1989 as our aircraft came out of the H-46 SLEP (called SR&M) out of Cherry Point. CH/UH-46 got 1 x 182, while our SAR HH-46 received 2 x 182. The comm capability was not appreciated at first but the reliability was an immediate benefit. We later found the magic of the 182 after we "procured" a multi band portable radio from Marines and we hard wired a power supply and a external antenna - allowed us to have a comm capability in the tower separate from the Ship. Allowing useful comms for admin. And then experiencing an AF logistics head, having tactical radio comms with cargo handling folks was key. (And not shutdown on the beach).

Triggered some good memories.

Now if some genius would have figured out a way to put ILS in the mighty Phrog that would have been awesome .

 

[ChuckMK23]

While I'm not arguing we should return to the days of 20 independent control heads and hundreds of switches/buttons, I do think we swung the pendulum too far with platforms like the current Seahawks. There was something to be said for being able to change your squawk or switch the CMDS into manual without having to navigate through menus and visually close the loop with a glass cockpit. It was also nice not having to pay a prime contractor millions and wait 4+ years for what would've been a simple SW change pushed out by O level maintenance in the old days of federated systems.

Even in the Garmin G1000 across various sw/hw generations and aircraft types/models the struggle is similar. The "designed by engineers" culture of Garmin especially is a struggle.