... until something goes wrong. Then a touch screen is the last thing you want. An airliner moving uncontrollably is no time to try touching just the right spot of the screen, and avoid touching the wrong spot.

Was team screen til this point.

In critical systems, you want to make sure inputs are easy to use in the worst case scenario.

Even the best of touchscreens can't compare to physical controls in tough times.

Kinda like trying to flip just the right toggle switch and avoid flipping the wrong one?

Just because it's on a touchscreen doesn't mean it has to be tiny and hard to touch. A 17" touchscreen could have fewer controls than the same hardware panel. And the controls could be bigger on the touchscreen.

It’s not like trying to flip just the right toggle. You’ve flipped it thousands of times and memorized its exact location through haptic memory. You gently feel the surroundings to ensure your hand is in the right location and then you make the decisive motion with your fingers. You don’t need to look while doing this. This is how hands work. This is how you type. I wish people would stop pretending they don’t understand this.

> flipped it thousands of times

This raises a question: how many times do an average pilot actually flip a switch over their carrier?

Many switches are flipped once or twice on takeoff, then again before or after landing. Depending on the plane (small GA aircraft or airliner or anything inbetween) there could be 4 or 5 switches to flip in total before takeoff, or 30-40. One of the most ubiquitously used controls in aircraft are concentric rotary encoders though, with a button integrated in them if you press the top of the encoder. Those are used to do menu navigation in the GPS units used in many planes, or for altitude/heading selectors in autopilot units.

Worth mentioning that these days GPS units seem to be getting touchscreens but usually still aren't losing the physical buttons.

Thiss os how i typw somtimws.

BS.

Imagine trying to find the right switch on this by feel, without hitting the wrong one by accident.

https://live.staticflickr.com/6150/5990351987_fb9c159ea5_b.j...

Easy mode, given the variety of orientation points in form of switches you can gently touch with fingers to recognize position.

That said, usually you make a short look at the panel to benefit from that hardcoded visual-motion coordination hw in your head.

I can just as easily make the argument the other way around: An airliner moving uncontrollably is no time to try touching just the right knob (of which there are like a hundred), and avoid touching the wrong one.

You'd be wrong. The critical controls are uniquely shaped so that the pilot can put his hands quickly on the correct one and know it's correct.

Part of pilot training (at least in my dad's day in the AF) was blindfolding the pilot and the instructor names a control, and the student must put his hands on it. Or he flunks.

I don't believe this is equivalent though. With hardware controls, most (if not all) of them are immediately accessible at all times. With proper training, body movement and tactile feedback will train your muscle memory which will help you find the right control without much of a hassle.

Just out of curiosity, do pilots still manually take off and land fully, or does auto-pilot / computer do this too nowadays?

The technology exists, but autoland functionality depends on the plane model and the airport. Usually, most of the approach is done with ILS with the final moments being manual.