Visited the museum of flight in Seattle last weekend and noticed something weird

I was looking at the old cockpits and realized how many of those round dial gauges are still flying on some of the planes we work on today. It made me wonder if we are holding back safety by keeping analog instruments instead of upgrading to glass panels. Do you guys ever push owners to upgrade or just fix what they have?

2 comments

2 Comments

scott.drew25d agoProlific Poster

Honestly, some of those old round gauges are just flat out more reliable in a pinch (less tech to fail mid-flight). But yeah, sometimes I'll nudge an owner toward a glass upgrade if the analog stuff is getting hard to source parts for.

the_elliot25d ago

Huh, I actually see it the opposite way - old steam gauges can fail just as easily when a vacuum pump goes out or a static port gets blocked. Glass panels give you redundancy with separate backup instruments and a lot more situational awareness in my experience.