Question: real life fighter cockpit operation - haptic vs. visual

[AlphaOneSix]

I presume when the pilot rolls into action with this device, he isn't supposed to touch anything besides the collective and stick units?

 

Not at all, the helmet mounted display is just a HUD attached to the pilot's face, plenty of button-mashing and switch-actuating goes on with the HMD in use.

[EtherealN]

It's all about muscle memory.

 

Aye, for a trivial example: I spent a good couple of years doing installation work on industrial machines, and the "tool of the trade" were wrenches and electric drills. It's sort of amazing how you can "feel" when you're about to "break through" a steel member and prepare the drill accordingly, or "feel" when you are just right with tightening a bolt. All comes with experience, and all of this seemed almost magical when I first started out.

 

Move this general principle to aviation and that's what basically happens. They do this for a living, and they practice this specifically, so it becomes second nature. :)

 

Same thing applies when I fly IRL; I don't need to "check" what deflections to what for my controls, and I don't need the variometer when adjusting my final; do it enough and you just feel it - it becomes second nature through practice. (And indeed, you don't get a license if you can't do it without variometer.) If I want to change the transponder setting I can find it without looking, I've done it enough that I know what the knobs feel like.

 

Practice enough and you'll just do things right without thinking. For real fighter pilots, they just have a leg up on us simmers since they get to work on it fulltime. :)

[nscode]

How about chaff and flare dispenser? :D

 

That too. Thus, defencive systems automation.

 

 

 

Had a lot of SAMs fired at you to cement that experience? :music_whistling:

 

Read it from many pilots. Had situations that include similar ultimate consequence.

[Alex_rcpilot]

Thanks guys. To this point I think it's more than clear that pilots don't necessarily depend on sight to operate instrument control inputs. I finally had my speculations confirmed - no mater how obvious they seemed from the beginning.

 

I guess this is also a huge difference using touch screen will make when it comes to home cockpit building. You get to fly multiple types of aircraft in the same pit, but non of them will really give you the sense that it's an extension of your physical body, due to the fact that you need to look down to find the control drawn on the flat surface. At least I would hate pressing on a flat panel without looking. lol

[cichlidfan]

They say:

 

An amateur practices until he gets it right. A professional practices until he can't get it wrong.

 

That pretty much sums it up I think!