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Old 11th Oct 2012, 23:18
  #6 (permalink)  
AviatorTB
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: New York
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I believe that FA's comments covered a lot of useful territory so I won't repeat them. However, you should re-read and absorb them so that you will have plenty of headspace left to deal with all the other ways this plane may catch you out if you are careless. And just as with FA, what follows is hardly exhaustive.

The glass cockpit can dazzle you with a ton of information. It is all useful at the right time and to answer the right question. It is you who regulate those, not the plane. Garmin and Avidyne may still offer free pc sims for the 430 and the Entegra. Those are a must so that you are not wasting time (forget the lesson cost, I mean time saving your neck) trying to find info that is "there...somewhere." Sometimes, it does not matter that the info is somewhere on some screen. Just yesterday I flew a medical flight into KBOS in the mid-afternoon. The last thing I wanted to do upon landing was start scrolling to find the APD in the midst of vacating, cleaning and checking, and calling ground to get my taxi instructions. I already had the APD on my iPad (printing a pdf is what I did 2 years ago). Staying ahead of the plane is paramount, even when you are standing still.

This also means that you should learn about the weaknesses in the systems. For example, the XM weather is at least 5 to 15 minutes old, but in fact, the NEXRAD feeding it may be as much as 20 minutes old. Some AWOS data feeds properly and some does not. Little things like those can have a very interesting impact on you once you are in the air and are not as well prepared as you might have been. So, plan your flight and plans B and C on the ground as if you did not have the info on the MFD.

Because the screens give you so much data, you will have to unlearn so many of the myths of flying piston driven airplanes (flying oversquare; that LOP ops burn exhaust valves, etc etc). Regardless, unlearn them and also take the time to learn the right way to use the engine.

Lastly, find a good simulator school so that you can practice (say, once or twice a year) interesting abnormals and emergencies, including things that only a CAPS pull will remedy. The CAPS is hardly an instinctive thing especially when transitioning airframes.

Oh yeah, make sure you are having fun.

Cheers.
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