What 4 things should the plane tell you?

[Yetti]

My new audio panel will tell me 4 things when triggered.   What should they be.

1.  When the MP sounds the "Gear up" sonoalert will be in position 1

2.

3.

4.

 

[Hank]

My suggestions, just for the heck of it, for you to choose between:

1. Gear is up (on takeoff and at 500agl? on descent
2. Raise flaps (at 500agl on climbout, if they're down)
3. Gear is down (when lowered and when the throttle switch is triggered, regardless of gear position)
4. 100 feet (or 50 feet)

Some of these may be multiple functions, but #3 would be nice to have. I need #2, I don't use Takeoff Flaps much other than in the pattern to land . . .

[Yetti]

57 minutes ago, Hank said:

My suggestions, just for the heck of it, for you to choose between:

1. Gear is up (on takeoff and at 500agl? on descent
2. Raise flaps (at 500agl on climbout, if they're down)
3. Gear is down (when lowered and when the throttle switch is triggered, regardless of gear position)
4. 100 feet (or 50 feet)

Some of these may be multiple functions, but #3 would be nice to have. I need #2, I don't use Takeoff Flaps much other than in the pattern to land . . .

I rarely use flaps on take off.   4.  Do able with a LIDAR which I have just have to hook it up and program it.

I usually say "don't suck"  on take off.

[Hank]

6 minutes ago, Yetti said:

I rarely use flaps on take off.   4.  Do able with a LIDAR which I have just have to hook it up and program it.

I usually say "don't suck"  on take off.

I forgot one:

         5.  You missed the white line (on landing). I don't need this annunciation, my wife always tells me I'm off to the left.

[GeeBee]

Hypoxia warning

CO warning

Check Engine on gauge exceedance

[cbarry]

Check Gear

Check Airspeed

Check Altitude

Check Fuel

Bonus:  Check Checking Account!

[Yetti]

Like them.   I guess should have added to make me a more safe pilot.

[steingar]

Personally, I think for what these things cost they should be able to tell you where are the nearest girl and the nearest booze.  Or maybe the nearest girl and the cheapest booze.  You get the idea.

[JimB]

1. On downwind - "Boost pump, Gear, Mixture, Prop"

2. On base - "Hey dummy don't forget your gear"

3. On final -" PUT THE GEAR DOWN NOW!"

4. After crunchy sounding landing - "You aircraft insurance number is......." 

[jlunseth]

I have an Icarus SAM GPSS that has all kinds of alerts. The standard ones from memory are stall, GUMPS at a given altitude AGL (1,000 feet, but I believe it is setable), arriving at or varying from a set altitude, time to a waypoint, and arriving at a waypoint.  The pilot needs to set three things to insure the alerts work and are accurate: pressure, destination altitude, and target altitude. These are on my checklist and are set before every flight. You need to be judicious about how many alerts you set, because they are automatic and don't know that, for example, you are talking to ATC, or are at a critical point in flight where you need to be doing something. They also happen regardless of what flight regime you are in.  The system does not know, for example, that you are on downwind, or on final, it only knows you have reached 1,000 AGL. The SAM will then remind you a couple of times to run GUMPS and you will need to stop whatever you are doing and clear the alert or it will repeat.

I would set fewer rather than more alerts if I were doing it again. The arriving waypoint alerts are not very useful. They are intended to help with two things, one is making IFR position reports and the other is to alert you about where you are on an approach. We rarely do position reports anymore and when flying approaches today, we have both our panel instruments and, hopefully, a georeferenced plate. The waypoint alerts just don't help much. The downside is that mine will always give me an arriving waypoint alert at exactly the same time as tower or ATC is talking to me when I am arriving at the destination airport. It does so every single time. I would just not use this type.

The stall alert is a must.

The GUMPS alert is a "meh." It does have a tendency to step on tower or ATC, or it gets ignored because I have already run GUMPS in my normal approach procedures. It is an annoyance because I have to stop what I am doing, which is usually alot of stuff just prior to landing, to take whatever action is necessary to stop the alert from continuing. It also comes on when practicing or doing maneuvers such as turns about a point. You can mute it, but if you do you are losing other alerts that you probably want during maneuvering such as "STALL, STALL."

Target altitude is useful. If flying in the muck, it let's you know if you are varying from your altitude before ATC has to call you. Usually there is not that much going on if and when that alert sounds, so it rarely steps on anyone. If you have an AP and for some reason you thought you set it but didn't, or you hit a switch and the function you selected did not activate, the alert will act as a fail-safe to remind you when you are deviating from altitude. Does not happen often, but worth using the alert because, as I said, it generally does not interfere with radio communications at critical moments.

My choices would be (1) stall, (2) target altitude, and if you really feel you need it, (3) GUMPS, or "Gear" or whatever you want to record for that function.

When I do Angel Flights, I tell the passengers during the approach to land that a really good landing means the stall alert will go off right at the runway, so not to be alarmed if they hear it.

Don't use four alerts just because you can. Some can get in the way, and unfortunately when they do that they teach you to ignore alerts, which is a "skill" you don't want to learn.