Mierdia
Thanks for the reply it was very illuminating, I am very pleased to see that the students for the IR can't use the aircraft for the IR test in the "full glass" mode.
However those who are choosing the aircraft because they think it will help them move to an airliner glass cockpit are also under a sad misapprehension as clearly they cant use any of the advanced features of the aircraft on the IR training.
I looks to me as if the PA34 is the route to go down, spend the same money as with the Diamond star, do an extra hour of flying and be in position that you can fly an aircraft with blue levers rather than letting the computer do it all for you!
In these lean times it may well come in useful.