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A lot of small aircraft controls have moved to touchscreens, and they're terrible, especially in turbulence.

roeles 4y ago
On gliders it's common to have buttons on top of the stick. There are <enter> and <escape> like buttons and a 4-way button emulating the arrow keys. Using these to navigate menus still demands a whole lot attention. It just isn't very predictable.
- Arrath 4y ago
  I drove a friend's Audi and it had the best input method possible, down on the center console next to the gear shift there was a little nub joystick that allowed 8 way movement on the map, the collar of the nub rotated to cycle around the menus, and you pushed it down to click. There was a back button next to it on the console. This actually made me consider an Audi, except for the fact that by the time I drove it this was an older model, and that input had long been superseded by a pure touchscreen.
omoikane 4y ago
Airbus A380 has a keyboard, I am not sure if that's common on other planes: https://www.google.com/search?q=airbus+a380+keyboard&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=airbus+a380+keyboard&tbm=isc... Maybe that's the endgame -- dedicated buttons for commonly used functions, keyboards for everything else.
FridayoLeary 4y ago
Isn't it the job of the faa to regulate every conceivable safety issue out of existence? Why did they let touchscreen controls through the net?
- tjohns 4y ago
  Because they're not really a safety issue in an aircraft. When you're in cruise flight, things happen slowly. Heck, on a pre-touchscreen general aviation GPS unit, you dial waypoints in one letter at a time with a single rotary knob. As annoying as the touchscreen is, it's still an improvement - and you still get your single rotary knob in case things are turbulent, so it's no really any worse. Takeoff/landing is a different story. Things happen quickly there. But you're also not messing with the avionics during those phases of flight. As the saying goes: aviate, navigate, communicate - in that order. Touchscreens are mostly the realm of navigation and (sometimes) communication.

On gliders it's common to have buttons on top of the stick. There are <enter> and <escape> like buttons and a 4-way button emulating the arrow keys. Using these to navigate menus still demands a whole lot attention. It just isn't very predictable.

Arrath 4y ago
I drove a friend's Audi and it had the best input method possible, down on the center console next to the gear shift there was a little nub joystick that allowed 8 way movement on the map, the collar of the nub rotated to cycle around the menus, and you pushed it down to click. There was a back button next to it on the console. This actually made me consider an Audi, except for the fact that by the time I drove it this was an older model, and that input had long been superseded by a pure touchscreen.

omoikane 4y ago

Airbus A380 has a keyboard, I am not sure if that's common on other planes: https://www.google.com/search?q=airbus+a380+keyboard&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=airbus+a380+keyboard&tbm=isc... Maybe that's the endgame -- dedicated buttons for commonly used functions, keyboards for everything else.

FridayoLeary 4y ago

Isn't it the job of the faa to regulate every conceivable safety issue out of existence? Why did they let touchscreen controls through the net?

tjohns 4y ago
Because they're not really a safety issue in an aircraft. When you're in cruise flight, things happen slowly. Heck, on a pre-touchscreen general aviation GPS unit, you dial waypoints in one letter at a time with a single rotary knob. As annoying as the touchscreen is, it's still an improvement - and you still get your single rotary knob in case things are turbulent, so it's no really any worse. Takeoff/landing is a different story. Things happen quickly there. But you're also not messing with the avionics during those phases of flight. As the saying goes: aviate, navigate, communicate - in that order. Touchscreens are mostly the realm of navigation and (sometimes) communication.