Can you remember where all the main items are in your cockpit?

For certain models of Autopilot, the location of the autopilot or autopilot pitch trim CB is certainly a life-saving item of knowledge. A trim runaway at the wrong time is bloody dangerous.

If you are an owner or group member, this level of familiarity is not difficult.

Let’s make a contest. Each one of us draws his cockpit with all switches – and posts it here. Later we compare with the photos :-)

There are certain things you need to know for each aircraft, because they are things that might kill you. An example is the location of the electric trim CB.
There are plenty of other things where it doesn’t matter that you have to look for them

Let’s make a contest.

That would be hopelessly unfair. For just one example, my cockpit – my dashboard, to be precise – has six fuses, yes fuses not breakers. No autopilot no this no that – there are advantages to flying on a tiny budget. Simplicity not the least.

The one item that literally used to haunt me was the vent control shut off valve. The lever sits on the RHS, down in the footwell. There must be a reason for it to be positioned so awkwardly, but it is a bugger to get to, even on the ground, from the LHS. I used to fly, thinking, in the event of an in flight fire, how in gods name I would deal with it. At least I knew it was there…. because I am sure there are lots of people flying, who would not even know that it exists.

Another quirk, is, in the event the gear fails to come down in the Bonanza, there is a handle, just centred behind the pilot seat, but, remember to pull the CB, prior to manual extension, because if it fires up, it may well remove a few fingers. I still confuse which CB is which.

The moral, read the POH, and then go and look at the whole deal, because there will always be an item that you thought, never knew about that..

Yeah I do check the location of every switch before takeoff. Flying many different planes, you simply can’t memorize each cockpit. In the last year I have flown a C172B, C172D, C172F, C172M, C172P, Bölkow 208, Bölkow 209, Morane 880, Morane 883, Morane 894, Elster C, C150F, C150M, SF23, SF25, DR250, PA28-140, PA28-180, PA-22 … sometimes up to seven different aircraft in one day. Many of them have comparatively easy avionics or systems, so stick and rudder capabilities are much more important than blind knowledge of every switch. You look at the most important ones prior take off, but that is about it.

Flying in the military, there are many different requirements to the aviator than while instructing in a FR environment, or flying IFR GA. There is simply no need to adjust frequencies blind or to perform all emergency routines while flying in close formation under enemy attack in close proximity to the ground.

Of course, If I were to set up an aerobatic formation team, I would need to know the plane of my choice by heart, including all switches and frequency changes. But not in our “daily” private flights (Just as the author suggested).

Okay, if you fly one aircraft all the time, you will tend to learn the locations of all switches eventually…

Peter wrote:

Let’s face it, when you hire a car, you should work out how to operate the lights, etc, before driving off

We probably should, but these things get figured out while driving. Then, just before parking the last time I figure out what the “sport mode” is (adjusting the steering wheel servo so it becomes steerable at higher speeds) The next time renting a different car, the “sport mode” means something completely different again, so why bother.

I find similar things with radios in typical rental aircraft. That’s why the “aviate, navigate, communicate” is so important

Cars and Aircraft should not be compared regarding this matter. After all you can simply stop the car if you don’t find the windscreen wiper switch.

I have flown about 150 types as a journalist – under supervision of company test pilots, and doing it like that i think it’s ok. But flying solo, with my family on board? Before i do that i will study the POH, fly it alone for one or two hours. And while i had an MEP rating for many years i let it expire, because i would never be good enough to carry my kids.

Today i think that the safest way is to fly one airplane and to really know that one well. A 10.000 hour LH captain can not simply fly a 320 after thousands of hours in the 330 – although each of them could without much problems. A Mooney Bravo and a Cirrus SR22 ora TB20 are much more different than even an A318 and an A340 (except emergency, engine out procedures or systems)

Flying in a club, with five different types of aircraft and each aircraft different from the other also when it is the same type, makes it very difficult. I usually take about 5 minutes before the flight to have a look at each instrument, going from one side to the other, but I think this is the main problem of flying multiple types.