. . .The elephant in the room is obviously the iPads. The Skyview screen to me is a little small. I fly 787 for a living so I do have to keep that in context. My intent is, once I am in the terminal area IFR, to fly with the Skyview in 80/20 screen with PFD and Engine. The iPad just to the left will be my charts/moving map. The display is much larger than the Skyview split screen. Having the Skyview offset to the right a bit also puts the PFD directly in front of me. Two reasons I placed the Skyview low with the panels on top. First is that the airlines have the Mode Control Panel (MCP) across the top of the panel so it’s continuity for me. More importantly though, my bi-focals work perfectly with me looking outside then shifting my eyes in to the lower panel. Getting old is not for the timid… The second iPad is a bit of a place holder. Admittedly my wife will like the iPad better but my intent will be to replace the right iPad with a 7” Skyview. A side note here though, I think flying plates on the right iPad is a bad idea. Moving your eyes in IMC is a great idea, moving your head, is not. My other thought on the left iPad is that, even though I’m OK with the single point of failure risk with the ACM, I’d like to mitigate it as much as possible.
Next is switches. You have convinced me to pass on the rockers. Good arguments there. Also, I will move the pitot heat down by the Boost Pump and Landing Light. The rationale on switches for me is they will be color coded by system but grouped by phase of flight. Note on the Pitot Heat though. My technique is when I am in or anticipating IMC, the Pitot Heat is on. Being surprised by pitot ice is also a very bad idea.
Last thought, if you guys aren’t doing blindfold cockpit checks, you should be. That’s why I group switches by function. When I’m in smoke or dark I want to able to find my phase of flight switches quickly and only have a couple to choose between. One last thing, Flaps on the stick? Seems odd to me. If you have a Tosten grip, where do you put the Flaps switch and how does it work?
Gosh that is a lot of words, very sorry. You beat up my panel pretty good, thank you. Now you know my logic, can you take a shot at that as well? I’d appreciate it. Thanks again guys!