My 2p’s worth is this:
In 2008 I flew from Houston, TX, to Tulsa, OK, in a long thin regional jet of some sort. I went into the cockpit after landing, to nose around. Spoke to the two pilots, both aged about 18… At the end, as the next crew were stepping into the cockpit, the previous ones made a point of power cycling the cockpit, to wipe out all the previous avionics settings. Clearly this was done for a good reason.
Of course I accept the opinion of pilots more professional than me. If you both say a blank field would be better than it’s probably right.
It has never happened to me though: I always set the altitude. I also see no big danger, because you must be aware of the altitude you are climbing to so it should get your attention in the climb latest. No? You can still let it climb and press ALT at the right altitude …
I completely agree with what_next.
However, this is more of a multi-crew CRM thing than something that will affect most people here. Most of us are more likely to think “1000’? That’s not possible? I wonder if I forgot to…? Shit, yes, I wrote it down somewhere and…? Oh, after take-off checks…”
Alexis wrote:
The first altitude is an item of the departure briefing.
It certainly should be. However if things get rushed, it is very tempting to read that altitude from the screen, assuming that your colleague who copied the clearance (while you were distracted by the passengers or whatever else) entered the correct value into the system. And I repeat myself for the third time (from experience): An empty field where one expects a value gets your attention – a (wrong) value in a field where one expects a value will easily be accepted.
When I, a couple of months ago, described (in another forum, i think) how I forgot to check the NAV Source (it was on VLOC and not on GPS1), and how the airplane surprised me by starting to make a turn in IMC after t.o.n all hell broke loose and I was accused of beeing a slob ….
I think that the autopilot altitude settings, in a professional environment anyway, are among the TOP items before you depart. The first altitude is an item of the departure briefing.
Alexis wrote:
Are you serious?
Yes, I am.
Alexis wrote:
How about checking your autopilot settings before takeoff?
The problem in a multicrew environment is that sometimes the other crewmember (or oneself) responds to a checklist item with the expected answer and not with what they really did: “Navaids – Set and Cheked” Haha. Neither set nor checked at least once per day on a busy day with not much rest.
Alexis wrote:
Am I telling this a professional?
Yes. Professional pilot now, professional engineer/engineering software developer in a previous life. Defaulting vital values to some previous setting ist dangerously wrong. Leave it blank and it will catch attention. Put in a value and that value will be taken for granted.
Fail to adjust that ant it’s going to be very expensive… I am really considering to write to Garmin about this issue.
Are you serious? How about checking your autopilot settings before takeoff? Am I telling this a professional?
Is there another departure so uncannily similar? 
Cobalt wrote:
it’s only one village, I believe
Cobalt wrote:
Am I the only one to think this is a non-issue, at least on an EFIS that shows a bug on the altitude tape?
Especially there (in my view)! If you take off with the speed bugs still set for the landing (and altitude) and forget to re-set them you might be in for a nasty surprise. So personally I much prefer if they don’t default to the last values. As they do on my plane at work, but this is certified according part 25 which may explain the difference.
When instructing this afternoon I checked with the Garmin 500 on our Seminole and this one will show the last settings before shutdown. Which for our flight today was a potentially expensive setting: The altitude was preset to 5000ft, the go-around altitude for an instrument approach. But we departed VFR where the maximum altitude is 3500ft. Fail to adjust that ant it’s going to be very expensive… I am really considering to write to Garmin about this issue.
