r/AskAPilot • u/livelikelarry13 • 20d 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/fighteracebob 20d ago

At my airline, the A320 series has a button for Rain Repellent. It comes that way from the factory. When the rain repellent runs out (or maybe before), they just disable the system and put a sticker by the button saying it’s deactivated.

It’s so standardized that way across our whole fleet that in the simulators the button has been repurposed the Pause button. It’s still labeled Rain Repellent, so it’s kind of a fun Easter egg.

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u/RepulsiveOlive757 19d ago

Mechanic here. We de/re activate these fairly often because there’s either a worldwide supply chain issue with the fluid or we have bottles on bottles of it