G1000 transistion training - flight 2

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 GFC700 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 significant part of that was the ILS signal not being all that superb at Rock Hill.

I like the Garmin more each flight I make using it, but I still can't say I like it more than the Avidyne. I bet if/when I become very adept at using the G1000 I will like it better. I can definitely say though that the G1000 with the GFC700 autopilot is better than the avidyne with an external autopilot.

Comments

Callsign Echo said…
Very interesting post, especially to me. Next weekend I'll be getting my high-perf endorsement in a 182T, and renewing my instrument currency, AND transitioning to glass. This will be my second flight ever in a G1000 aircraft. Did you start on steam gauges, or on the Avidyne glass? Was the transition tough? I feel like I may be overloading myself here...
November 18, 2008 at 1:56 PM
Jason (Photon) said…
Echo, I started with steam gauges back in the nineties but have gotten about 75 hours with the Avidyne since. Transitioning to glass was really easy for me, almost wholly due to my experience using flight sims. I'd recommend you use a sim as much as possible. :)
January 9, 2009 at 9:06 AM
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