Standardization Fights Progress

J. Mac McClellan

Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 08:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

Modern integrated avionics have vastly increased aircraft capability but introduced a significant pilot learning curve, shifting the focus from traditional flying skills to system programming and management.
Aviation faces a persistent dilemma between the rapid progress of avionics technology and the critical need for standardization, making comprehensive pilot training increasingly difficult across diverse and continuously evolving aircraft fleets.
This lack of standardization impacts all aircraft types and operators, requiring individual pilots to take personal responsibility for continually learning the intricacies of each specific avionics system to leverage technological advancements.

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I have flown the Beech King Air 200 many times in the last 32 years here at the magazine but I still needed help to get the big turboprop off the ramp. Starting the engines was easy and totally familiar, I knew the systems and could operate them correctly with a few seconds to locate each switch, and the flight and power controls all fell easily to hand. But loading the flight management system (FMS) took some coaching.

For decades the pilot’s barroom boast was “if you can show me how to start it, I can fly it.” But these days the bragging needs to be something like “if you can program the FMS, I can get it to the runway and fly it.”