A B747-400 CAPT WRITES A LIST OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES OF FANS.

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DURING MY TENURE WITH THE B777 PROGRAM; I WAS EXPOSED TO SOME INTERESTING FANS 'PROTOTYPING' AND PRESENTATIONS WHILE AT THE BOEING COMPANY. I SAW THE LARGE; MFD SCREEN USED FOR CPDLC. IN LINE OP; OUR B777'S HAVE NOT; TO DATE; USED FANS. UPON MY RETURN TO B747-400; I WAS DISAPPOINTED TO SEE HOW COMPLEX THE FANS OP SEEMED TO BE. AN INDICATOR WOULD BE THE THICKNESS OF OUR FLT MANUAL SECTION DEVOTED TO FANS. IT TAKES MANY WORDS AND DIAGRAMS TO DESCRIBE FANS OP; ALL FUNNELED THROUGH THE CDU'S. THE FOLLOWING IS A BRIEF LIST OF FANS/CPDLC POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES: POSITIVE: 'CPDLC' SIMPLIFIES OR ELIMINATES DIFFICULTIES OF HF RADIO COM FOR ROUTINE POS RPTING AND ATC REQUESTS. POSITIVE: ALLOWS FOR DISPLAYED OR PRINTED 'PROOFS' OF CLRNCS. NEGATIVE: CONFUSION CAN EXIST BECAUSE OF PARALLEL COM METHODOLOGY; ATC AND COMMERCIAL RADIO/COMPANY; BOTH USING SAME DATALINK SYS. NEGATIVE: ATC (OAK OCEANIC) DOES NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ROUTINE POS RPTS. (IF COMMERCIAL RADIO DATALINK IS USED FOR POS RPTS; OPERATOR ACKNOWLEDGES IMMEDIATELY.) THIS LEADS TO SOME INSECURITY REGARDING COM INTEGRITY WHEN USING CPDLC. NEGATIVE: CONCEPT COMPLEXITY! PERTAINING TO PRESENT FANS. I AM A LINE CHK AIRMAN. I DEMONSTRATE AND CHK PROFICIENCY OF THIS ASPECT OF NAV/COM TO NEW AND EXISTING AIRMEN. THIS IS A VERY COMPLICATED SYS WHEN PRESENTED TO AIRMEN WHO ARE NEW TO AIRPLANE/GLASS COCKPIT/INTL OP; OR ALL THE ABOVE. FOR INSTANCE: A) CDU SCREEN PRESENTATIONS ARE NOT INTUITIVE. B) CDU MULTI-PAGE MESSAGE MAY EXIST BUT CAN BE MISSED. C) USE IS LIMITED TO CERTAIN ROUTES...DOES NOT CORRESPOND TO OAK OCEANIC AIRSPACE BOUNDARIES.