Big Pistons Forever

According to the Cessna website the 2008 C172 is only available with the G1000 system so I guess the market has spoken...

soay

Precisely! However, it can extended in ways that are not possible with conventional instruments, from simple things like trend tapes and wind vectors to synthetic vision.
The only time I've done that was the first time I flew in a G1000 equipped aircraft. It was too confusing, so I decided to concentrate on adapting to the new technology and only look at the backups as part of my FREDA checks.

bjornhall

Isn't that "Cessna has spoken"?

IO540

Cirrus are charging $48k more for the G1000 version of the SR22 than the Avidyne version, yet their sales reps tell me that 98% of new orders are for the G1000 version.

Cirrus must be minting it because a G1000 cannot cost that much more, and they save 2 x GNS430 and a load of other hardware.

Unfortunately a G1000 is built to "commercial laptop" standard. Give me the late-1990s separate kit anyday If something on it goes, I can buy a replacement from the USA, have it in 2 days, pop it in, get it signed off as required, and I am back in the air. With a G1000, it's a case of the Garmin dealer saying "well, come up to see us and we will have a look at it" which is fine if you got a Garmin dealer handy. Almost nobody else can do any significant work on it, currently, in the UK.

PlasticPilot

Backpacker, you're 100% correct. Reading a tape has nothing to do with reading a needle, and getting used to it needs some time. I always set the altitude bug on the G1000, as it's much easier to fly the bug than interpret the numbers. But there is no speed bug for en-route or approach...

Read more about my experience and G1000 tips in G1000 - Get rid of the six-pack

PP

Fuji Abound

This is very true. You wouldn’t want a Garmin in a third world country.

However, remember it is modular. Switching out components its straight forward. I gather the system is proving reasonably reliable, the more so for aircraft not exposed to being kept outside! However it is early days yet.

I suspect Garmin will permit the main avionics components to be swapped out by any avionics engineer in time - which makes a great deal of sense. However, Garmin will control the market for compatible avionics.

Never look at these at all now, looked at them often in the first few hours. Tapes are just different, I don’t think they are better or worse. If you are accustom to anything it takes time to adapt. Most of us have spent 100s of hours flying on clock face instruments so it is not surprising the transition isnt seamless. Dials do have advantages although not with the trend indicators that come with tapes. That is why on Avidyne glass the engine instruments are represented as dials.

Probably about right although I don’t think there are many that teach the system well. I developed for myself a few very simple flow diagrams. With these it is relatively easy in the early days to tap into all the functions. More to the point I found if the system has a draw back it is the times you are half way through a procedure and cant get back out of that procedure. That’s easy to overcome with the diagrams.

Droopystop

Just by way of comparison....

I have just transitioned from a very basic (minimalist) IFR cockpit to state of the art glass. I am a commercial pilot with plenty of IFR and VFR hours in different roles.

The conversion is two weeks. Most of that is learning the new systems. The glass cockpit stuff took more than two days and didn't include operational aspects. The rest of the type rating involved 45 hours in the sim plus about 6 hours in the machine. I guess it was about 200 hours before I was fully comfortable with flying the aircraft.

Don't get me wrong, the environment and the type are far more demanding than anything a ppl should put up with, but I meerly write this to make sure that you don't underestimate the transition to glass. And be careful if you are not flying glass all the time. It is hard work to keep current on both which would detract from the fun and freedom of private flying.

Which do I prefer? Glass is great for solid IMC flying. Almost pointless for VFR since you really only need ASI, ALT, VSI and ball. But if you are flying VFR in a glass machine, make sure you know how to use it, don't let it distract you from flying the aircraft and know how to deal with things when they go wrong.