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.