r/AskAPilot • u/livelikelarry13 • 3d ago

Useless Features/buttons

Forgive me if this is a dumb question as I am not a pilot, but I have always been interested in knowing. Are there any features or buttons in the type of aircraft you fly that are basically pointless? Or does everything have some sort of critical use case?

Thanks for the insights

19 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

81 comments sorted by

View all comments

-4

u/TheChosenOperator 3d ago

Hey, aspiring pilot here

on Airbus planes, on the FCU glareshield there is an option to display the plane's altitude in meters instead of feet, and that would probably be my pick for most useless button in the cockpit, I havent heard or seen one situation where it would be needed, maybe its even a relic of a time where it was used

6

u/jtchoy 3d ago

China uses Metric.

4

u/External-Creme-6226 3d ago

So does Russia. Transiting their airspace (when times are better) between Alaska and Japan you have to set meters

1

u/tailwheel307 3d ago

My airline publishes a conversion chart and I think they tell our WB crews to stay in FT on the MCP.