rmartingt
Well Known Member
Musing over some switch philosophy while heavy into panel planning...
Let's say you have some critical switches (e.g. fuel pumps, ignition coils, etc. for an electrically-dependent engine), or even just some switches that would be mighty inconvenient to accidentally turn off. To me, it is obvious that you would want a locking feature to prevent those switches from being bumped accidentally and shutting off power. But should it also be required to turn them on?
Here's my thinking... my master switches and main engine power switches will be locking both ways--you'd have to unlock them to turn them on or off, thus preventing accidental shutoff in flight, or accidental activation on the ground.
For some of the other engine-related switches, like the fuel pumps and maybe the ignition coils, I'm considering using switches that lock into the on position only--you have to pull/unlock them to shut them down, but they can be activated simply by pressing them up. My thinking is that if I put the engine-related switches all in a row, including the primary/backup ECU select switch, then part of the engine failure checklist/memory item list would be to simply push all those switches up. On/Up would be the "safe" direction for in flight, and on the ground it wouldn't matter (the engine power switches should be off on the ground and they lock both ways).
Am I overthinking this, or is it reasonable to make turning these things on easy, and turning them off hard?
Let's say you have some critical switches (e.g. fuel pumps, ignition coils, etc. for an electrically-dependent engine), or even just some switches that would be mighty inconvenient to accidentally turn off. To me, it is obvious that you would want a locking feature to prevent those switches from being bumped accidentally and shutting off power. But should it also be required to turn them on?
Here's my thinking... my master switches and main engine power switches will be locking both ways--you'd have to unlock them to turn them on or off, thus preventing accidental shutoff in flight, or accidental activation on the ground.
For some of the other engine-related switches, like the fuel pumps and maybe the ignition coils, I'm considering using switches that lock into the on position only--you have to pull/unlock them to shut them down, but they can be activated simply by pressing them up. My thinking is that if I put the engine-related switches all in a row, including the primary/backup ECU select switch, then part of the engine failure checklist/memory item list would be to simply push all those switches up. On/Up would be the "safe" direction for in flight, and on the ground it wouldn't matter (the engine power switches should be off on the ground and they lock both ways).
Am I overthinking this, or is it reasonable to make turning these things on easy, and turning them off hard?