For any of you real-life airline pilots....Annunciator lights usually come on when a required system is off? I.E. Pitot heat,fuel pumps packs etc. Correct?This would be a industry standard or does it vary by manufacturer/airplane type?Jeff

Jeff-It varies by manufacturer. Depends upon the switch type, indicator light type, etc....The most common approach to this is the dark cockpit concept, by which things only illuminate to indicate a problem.The colors that are used are failry standard, however- red needs immediate attention, yellow will need attention soon, white/green indicate normal system operation.I flew a russian airplane awhile back that had red lights to indicate that the gear were up. (or: Not down?) Drove me darned crazy because my eye kept seeing red lights and moving immediately toward them to see what they were.... Rather frustrating after a few hours.....

Thanks Robert.....Thats kinda what I thought....Jeff

Wait...Did you say "Russian" airplane?....I missed that the 1st time!What type?Jeff

"Annunciator lights usually come on when a required system is off? I.E. Pitot heat,fuel pumps packs etc. Correct?"As Robert says, it varies. An example of 744 annunciator lights not coming on, would be the Override Jettison fuel pumps.If you lose entire electrical busses, however, the annunciator lights that would normally come on if you turned them off, may not illuminate because the light bulbs behind the annunciations are not powered... or the equipment position sensing system is completely depowered.Regards.Q>

Q>We had a fellow on our Technical Advisory/Beta team for the 400/400F who drove me about half a snit short of crazy hammering every tiny iniosyncratic piece of behavior into the electrical system.Fortunately his diagrams were more clear than the manufacturers. :-) :-) :-) :-)(ahahahahahahahahhaahhahaha)

Whew....I thought you were headed for the darkside...Jeff

Jeff-Oh- missed your question about "Russian" airplanes. :-)A buddy of mine owned a Yak-52 for awhile- and he used to enjoy sticking me in the front seat for aerobatics to see if he could make me cry. :-)We flew that airplane around one evening- and I spent the entire time head down on a sectional chart trying to keep track of our location as we threaded through the (very tall) mountains around here. He knew his way around, but I trust nobody in an airplane.Darn russian airplanes use pneumatic pressure in place of hydraulics (because of the propensity for cold soaking in mother russia? who knows...) and apparently there is some fancy gizmo trick required with the landing gear- and if you goof it up the gear makes a horrendous CRASH when you cycle the handle....We were flying touch and goes for his night currency in the airplane- and my job was to track a cessna that was in the pattern somewhere else.... I lost track of him- and just as I was about to admit it- my buddy goofed up the gear gizmo handle tricky-thing- and the entire airplane shook with a lound BANG.I swore we'd had that cessna climb right up into our belly... I relived a couple of family dinners- had out-of-body discussions with old friends- repented for my sins... But the sound of his hysterical laughter in the headset told me we were still alive...So- aerobatics don't scare me- but putting the gear down....Now THAT is terrifying.....HAHAHAHAHHHAHA

>A buddy of mine owned a Yak-52 for awhile- and he used to>enjoy sticking me in the front seat for aerobatics to see if>he could make me cry. :-)With friends like that, who needs enemas ? :-DAndy Scholes.

Ahhhh.....Flying with friends!Gotta love it.Jeff