Vectors To Final

For the final flight in my G1000 transition course we focused on failure scenarios. Not the "engine goes POOF" kind but the avionics kind. Normal situation This picture shows what the 2 Garmin screens show in a normal (non failure) situation. You can see we have 2 screens - the left PFD focusing on flight performance (airspeed, heading, attitude, altitude) and the right screen (MFD) focusing on engine data, mapping, checklists, and everything else. Failed PFD screen In this scenario the screen that is right in front of you (the PFD) has failed. This basically means the screen has gone dark. We simulate that by dimming the screen down to 0% brightness. After darkening the PFD we shot a GPS approach into Rock Hill. When this failure has occured you shift the G1000 into Reversionary mode. That means the info that is normally split across 2 screens is now merged into 1. It actually duplicates the same data on both screens, but since the PFD screen is no longer functioning...

Yesterday was my second flight behind the G1000. For this flight I kept the foggles on most of the time while shooting 3 instrument approaches - one LPV GPS, one VOR A, and one ILS . The LPV was almost magical. The G1000 coupled with the GFC 700 autopilot took over the vast majority of tasks for the entire approach. I had to push a few buttons now and then, and make power changes and radio calls, but beyond that I was just watching the instruments to make sure things were going as planned - which they did. I was incredible to see the plane going down the GPS-derived glideslope like it was on rails. WAAS is a huge advance for us folks that fly into smaller airports. The VOR -A approach was almost as easy. The extra steps there involve a little more autopilot management and manually switching to VOR mode when getting established on the approach. For the ILS I flew it using the flight director. I felt like I was chasing it a bit back and forth, but my instructor felt a sign...

My recent flight in the flight school's new C172 with the G1000 was my first flight in a new Cessna. I came away impressed with how smoothly the engine ran and how much improved the panel switches are on the new machines. The engine was fairly quiet for a C172 and purred like a kitten. There was no shaking panel, as many C172s I have flown have, and even the rudder pedals gave little vibration. Even at idle it ran very happily - no sputtering or protesting at all. The toggle switches in the new birds also feel much more substantial than in the older machines. They seem to be copies of what I imagine the Citations might have - not that I would know. It all comes together to give a feeling of quality that was surprising to me.

Yesterday I had my first instructional flight behind a G1000. The flight school recently bought a brand new C172 Nav III (not a leaseback as I had "feared"). My instructor Bill started off showing me the different preflight items in the cabin before I started the external walk around. While I was doing that he wiped down the displays as people have apparently been putting their hands all over the screens for some reason (people tend to like to touch glass panel screens I've noticed, but this was extreme). I guess that is why there is a market for $70 screen protectors . We cranked up the airplane, which was only mildly different from an older C172 with fuel injection. In the older planes, when I am priming the engine, I will turn on the fuel pump, put the mixture full rich, and then watch the fuel flow needle. Once it moves I turn off the fuel pump, pull the mixture out, and crank the engine. Once the engine fires I push the mixture full rich to keep it running. I...

John flew down to KUZA to give me a lift back up to Williamsburg late last week. He arrived in Rock Hill around 5:00 PM and we made a fast turnaround to get back up north before some forecast weather made its way into the area. I took the left seat and we made our way east around the southern side of the KCLT airspace. John picked up our IFR clearance while I got re-acclimated to flying the turbo Cirrus SR22 (it all came back to me quickly thankfully). The sun set about half way to our destination and we watched as the city lights started becoming more and more prominent. I made a check of the KJGG weather every 15 mins or so to see what the ceiling was doing there - it was maintaining at 2300' AGL overcast. When John was flying down south he went through a bit of weather through VA so we expected to see some of that again. However, the way it turned out, we only went through a few small cloud layers that were pretty thin. I would reach down and turn off the strobe light when ...

I am planning a flight with a night landing tonight. Maybe I should slap one of these on the nose before takeoff - looks pretty helpful! And it only costs $15,000 (plus all the costs of the Cirrus Perspective aircraft). :)