Bell 505 with Garmin flight display system. Photo: Lyn Burks
Most pilots these days have logged some time in an aircraft with a Garmin G500H coupled to some type of drive unit, such as a Garmin 430, 650, or 750. The primary flight display (PFD) and multifunction display (MFD) provide you with almost all the information a pilot could need to efficiently aviate, navigate, and communicate. While you probably noticed the design elements that you loved and that made your life easier, if you are like most helicopter pilots (a touch of a cynic), you’ve also noted some design features you thought Garmin should have done differently. An enormous amount of time, money and research has been spent creating the features that make a great display – or likewise creating an unsuccessful one noted only for its commercial failure. We are going to focus this discussion on the way the human brain interprets the information that a PFD gives the flight crew, as this is a large factor in commercial success. We’ll use the Garmin G500/G500H models as representative displays.
What makes a great PFD? A PFD must provide information in a manner that is consistent with human cognition and psychology, so the flight crew can accurately perceive and understand the factors and conditions that affect safety before, during and after a flight within these five fundamental ‘P’ elements: Pilot, Plane, Plan, Programming and Passenger (FAA, 2016). In other words, a PFD must allow the flight crew to gain and maintain situational awareness quickly and effectively. To do this, the human brain
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requires accurate, complete (or mostly complete) flight information. The pilot perceives and processes the sensory stimuli, applies the cognitive process, fills in the gaps, and infers future events.
We all remember the early, stressful days of instrument flight training. To varying extents, we struggled to use the flight instruments to create a three-dimensional mental picture of the helicopter’s position in space and then use pitch, roll, yaw, and power to navigate from departure to destination using electronic navigation, all while completing radio calls and checklists. Over time and with lots of practice, we mastered the skills of instrument cross-check, interpretation, and aircraft control — at least well enough to pass a checkride. We learned to quickly and accurately read instrument information like altitude, heading, and course, and then make timely control inputs to ensure the helicopter was performing in the required and expected manner. Those who have flown a traditional “six-pack” with analog instruments, then a glass cockpit, then transitioned from one to the other, have experienced the additional difficulty of scanning and interpreting different instrument displays.
A well-designed PFD combines layout, size, and colors or highlighting to transmit information to the pilot in a manner that is easily perceived and interpreted. Layout includes the instruments’ locations, the space occupied or size of each instrument, and
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