Originally Posted by Chuks
...I just grinned and told them "300 hours," what conventional wisdom says is the period it takes to become fully acclimated to flying with glass.
No, it won't take anything even close to 300 hours to get used to the new instrument panel in the Series 400 Twin Otter.
I have flown the Series 400 for about 35 hours now (a ferry flight to and from the NBAA convention in Orlando, Florida), and it took me about 5 flights to get used to it. It would have taken less time if someone had been able to give me a 2 hour familiarization course, but one of the problems associated with 'first flights' is that you don't get a fam course prior to making the first flight
The primary flight displays use industry-standard depictions, and the flight management system (navigation system) follows many of the conventions that pilots are already familiar with from having used the Garmin 430 systems.
And - when you set the heading bug, it sets the same heading on BOTH sides. Same goes for the altimeter setting, unless the pilot optionally elects to configure the system for independent altimeter settings on each side, for example, if SOPs call for QHN on one side and QNE on the other during certain phases of flight.