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Plane Talk MAXIMIZING YOUR INVESTMENT
Trading Up: Mastering Your Glass Cockpit
Anyone who has been to an air show recently knows that glass is the new black. You might think that transitioning from traditional instruments to an all-glass cockpit, with its expansive displays, moving map and un-ambiguous digital readouts would be a piece of cake. But it’s not quite that easy.
If you’re transitioning to a different type of aircraft, such as a Cirrus or a Diamond, you’ll likely undertake training to familiarize you with both the aircraft and the new instrumentation. But if you're trading in your old Cessna, Piper or Mooney for a glass-equipped model, you might not realize that you still need training in order to transition safely into what is really a much more complex airplane.
In a glass cockpit, all major flight and engine instruments are built into two large, glass computer screens with knobs and buttons on the sides and beneath the screen. The wealth of information available to pilots, including a moving map display, traffic and terrain awareness, optional weather overlays, and dozens of advanced monitoring and alerting tools can prove overwhelming to a pilot used to simple, single-purpose instruments like an attitude indicator or a turn-coordinator.
Richard Orentzel, director of flight training for Panorama Flight Services, a Cessna pilot center and dealer located in White Plains, NY, has transitioned a number of pilots from traditional Cessna instruments to the new, all-glass G1000 aircraft.
He says the biggest issue facing pilots making the switch is having to re-learn tasks that previously might have become a habit. Controls for instruments like the radios, the OBS indicators are not right next to the display, requiring pilots to re-learn what their hands should be doing in order to perform the tasks they need to perform.
“It’s different,” he said. “It’s not just looking in a different place, it’s processing the information in a different way. It’s probably using a different portion of the brain, too.”
Tony Bracci, chief pilot for Chesterfield, Missouri-based Skyline Aeronautics agrees.
“The most surprising thing is how much information is available,” he said. “To use these systems, we have to train people to become almost like system managers…they’re pilots but they have to learn how to manage the system and make it work for them.”
Skyline trains pilots who are transitioning to both the G1000-based glass cockpits as well as the Avidyne Entegra systems used on Cirrus and Piper airplanes. The company has a training program that includes nine hours of ground training and six hours of flying, and Bracci said they are getting more transition training clients as glass-equipped airplanes become more common.
He said the Oklahoma state police, for example, recently sent their pilots to Skyline for transition training after purchasing a new fleet of Cessna 182s.
While the Avidyne and Garmin systems have their different strengths and weaknesses, both offer roughly the same learning curve for pilots transitioning from traditional cockpits.
More than once, Richard said, pilots starting to learning the G1000 have relied on the backup, vacuum instruments to quickly gather airspeed and altitude information, instead of trying to find the information on the PFD screen.
Richard notes there is no FAA requirement that pilots undergo specific glass-cockpit training, which means a pilot checked out in a 172 could legally take off in a glass-equipped 172 without additional training. But, he adds, “Neither we, nor our insurance company feel that would be very smart.”
Panorama requires pilots to undergo five hours of training in order to fly a G1000-equipped aircraft. The first training session is typically conducted on the ground with the aircraft plugged into alternate power so the student can begin getting familiar with the instrumentation.
Flight sessions follow with everything from basic radio work to navigational skills being re-taught using the new instruments. For pilots who are instrument-rated, Richard insists they fly several approaches with an instructor on the new system before taking the airplane solo into IFR conditions.
“We recommend that they not go out immediately in hard IFR with the airplane,” he said. “I don't expect to show someone how to use the system and then have them look for the lowest IFR they can find.”
During transition training, Richard encourages pilots to use the autopilot to reduce the workload while learning the systems.
“In a transition course, you use the autopilot a lot because it gives you the opportunity to focus on the displays,” Richard said. “It gives you the freedom to focus on the information processing aspect of flying.”
Of course, once pilots become more comfortable with the systems, training involves hand-flying the airplane with the new panel, and of course, practicing approaches and other instrument tasks with various levels of system failure.
A pilot transitioning from an older cockpit may not be used to flying with a GPS, or may be used to using a hand-held GPS or LORAN to back-up traditional NAV radios that are used for primary navigation. Switching to a system in which GPS rules the land add an extra layer of complexity that may require additional training.
Because there is so much extra information to be processed, even non-pilots who regularly fly in the airplane and help out from the right seat will want to undergo glass cockpit training.
For non-pilots who regularly fly in the airplane and help work the radios, Richard recommends the person sit in the back during training sessions to become more familiar with the systems and how they work. It also helps to have a ground session with the non-pilot in the right seat learning the radios so that the tasks will become more routine and familiar.
One tool that will make the transition much, much easier for both the pilot and non-pilot is the “Cleared for Flying the Garmin G1000” program available from King Schools for $249. This CD-ROM-based course provides a basic overview of the G1000 systems to start, then delves into each specific sub-system in tremendous detail.
Each section is narrated in front of an illustrated G1000 panel, so that you can follow along with the lesson and understand more clearly how each component functions. A series of test questions at the end of each section are again, built on the G1000 panel, giving you an opportunity to “work the radios” a bit while answering questions designed to test your comprehension of the material.
After completing the G1000-based training program, it helps to take a few short, no-pressure trips in the airplane just to get used to the new workflow.
In the end, these extra few hours in the aircraft will make you a better, safer pilot, even if you’re already checked out in that particular make and model.
—Sean Fulton
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