Originally Posted by
hyperone
We've had RAAS installed in some of our a/c at Fedex for about a year. We also had a lot of problems with the original system being too loud and talking over radio transmissions, but the company disabled the system until they worked out the bugs.
It now works pretty nice- a good volume, gives you warning that you're approaching a runway in a timely manner, and won't drown out radio transmissions. Matches up well with our MD-11's and MD-10's EFB's - sorry, had to get that in.
The EFB's also took some getting used to, but I think 99% of our guys love the things now. Again, a number of bugs had to be worked out, and are still being worked on, but they can really improve your SA. When we get the moving map function up and running (the little airplane symbol moves across the selected airport diagram chart automatically), the SA improvement will really be good. Not to mention, not having to lug the 50+ lbs. of worldwide Jepps around, really make the EFB's worth the trouble of learning the Lufthansa Lido system that is installed on the EFB's, instead of Jepps.
The EFB's would definately be a nice addition and is probably the best way to improve SA. As far as the RAAS, it will take some time to get used to. It has been improved since the first installation a little over a year ago, but it is definately a work in progress. Mostly it is a distraction because of interruptions during busy radio transmission and checklist usage times.
EFB's with integration for chart overlay on MFD's would have been a better use of resources. I'm sure this was shot down though because of the side effect of making our job a little easier.