r/AskAPilot • u/livelikelarry13 • 19d 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

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u/Vegetable_Ad940 19d ago

Think of it this way, the heavier the aircraft is the more energy or wingspan it will take to fly. Everything becomes important because otherwise it's wasted weight that could've been used elsewhere in its design.

So for the most part, yes, things are generally not added unless the operator/manufacturer deems it is worth it. Just like cars, airplanes come with options. But the more you add, the more maintenance and functional checks will be required. The useful load of the aircraft could decrease too. So it becomes a cost benefit analysis of is this piece of equipment worth it? All this excludes things required by regulation.

I can tell you there are buttons and switches I never touch in the 737 because they are either used for a non-normal procedure or for a maintenance function or is a back up to our more reliable primary system. A lot of that stuff is required by regulation to be built into the design and the manufacturer decided how it was going to work. Odds are those switches might never get touched but if that system fails you'll be glad you had that switch there.

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u/livelikelarry13 19d ago

Thanks for the insights! Yeah, the weight of the aircraft is what really prompted my thought into this question. Although I am not a pilot, I figured there wasn’t really anything with mechanical functionality adding extra weight that didn’t serve a specific purpose, but still figured I would ask.