Nearly every glass cockpit aircraft has an airspeed tape with the speeds increasing as you go "up" the tape, similar to the altitude tape having the altitudes increase as you go "up" the tape.

I have flown one glass cockpit where that was reversed: the speeds decrease as you go "up" the tape.

I felt this was much more intuitive, since when you pitch the nose up,
- you climb toward the higher altitudes on the tape;
- and you pitch up toward a lower speed.

Are any Human Factors experts on here that can address this?
Has anyone else flown glass with the tape version I referred to?

How about thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Peanut gallery says: I'm used to it going up like the ALT, I'd rather it just stay that way.

Besides I can often make pitch AND airspeed increase at the same time with the thrust levers.

Gotta admit - I like looking up and seeing the redline above me rather than below me. I'm curious - on what model airplane did you see it reversed? Kinda reminds me of the old Russian attitude indicators where the plane in the center rolled rather than the horizon sphere.

I think the G-IV is one of the airplanes with the speed tape upside down

The one that still gets me every once and a while is Garmin's zoom knobs. Clockwise = zoom out and Counterclockwise = zoom in. Yet in daily life righty tighty moves things closer, lefty loosey takes things out.

The C-5 vertical tapes were based on the Thud, 106, and C-141 displays and went “backwards”.

GF

I'm flying an L-39 with that same attitude indicator, although I only fly it VFR. Yes, it is terrible.

Believe me, there is no comparison between that ADI and the speed tape. Having flown tapes both ways, I find the "upside down way" to actually be more intuitive.

But, I suppose we get used to whatever we have.

Even though I agree that the current setup is probably the better configuration, I had issues with it when I first transitioned to glass. My only guess is with a round dial the needle is usually pointed to the right when you are trying to maintain an airspeed for TO or App. The needle goes “up” and you are getting slower. I think that’s why my pea brain had issues when I first learned on this style of glass.

Personally I like the old vane suspended on the strut between the two left wings, but maybe that's just me.

C-17 has the same speed tape design. I had no issues flying it, granted it’s the only thing I’ve flown with speed tape yet


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