Learning the G1000

My local flight school recently got access to a 2008 C172 G1000. They've had a Avidyne Cirrus SR20 in the past, on leaseback I assume, but it was no longer available by the time I moved to the area. It was quite pricey per hour so I would only have flown it a little bit.

My hope is that this new C172 will be available for a while. Being the optimist I am, I have started the required transition training to be allowed to fly the G1000 equipped airplane solo. The fact that I am nuts for glass panels has nothing to do with my optimism, I'm sure. :)

The flight school hooked me up with King School's CD-based transition course: Cleared to fly the G1000. I'm not a big fan of the King's presentation style. The thing that bothers me the most about their style is that they do a half-laugh occasionally, and at odd times, as if you are supposed to find that pushing a certain button at a particular time is humorous. Maybe their acting coach told them that puts the student at ease - I think he deserves a punch in the stomach for being a moron. :) I also wish they offered the courses on OS X.

But goofy style aside, the content of the course is pretty good. I have flown behind a real G1000 for about an hour in the past, and have flown simulated G1000s in MS Flight Sim. After taking the King course I learned:
  • MS Flight Sims representation of the G1000 has no real-world value, unless you just want to practice your flight instrument scan
  • The G1000 is very powerful but some features are far from intuitive. I don't see how one could remember a few of the combination of inputs you need to do in certain cases, unless you practiced it at least weekly. Since I don't fly for a living, I won't practice all of that each week, so I will have to make a few custom checklists to guide me.
  • I will want the Garmin G1000 simulator for practicing at home
  • The go-around button on most G1000 airplanes is cooler than I thought - not only does it set your flight director to show a climb out, but it also starts the missed approach sequence and disables the autopilot for you - pretty cool.
  • The "reversionary" mode - where you can merge all the essential info on one screen - has limited value. It mostly just protects against a very rare failure - an LCD going dark or corrupt. That said, I have experienced a corrupted Avidyne MFD before (it made rainbow colors appear on the screen when it got too warm).
I'm still not sure which glass panel I would want if all else was equal - Avidyne or Garmin. I imagine I'll know for sure once I get some real time in the airplane - I look forward to it!

Popular posts from this blog

A-10C Standby Compass - Hardware Wiring

 Components: Arduino Nano , no headers attached EasyDriver board to run stepper motor 2x 12V power circuits (for LEDs and motor power) - used computer power supply with ATX breakout board IR sensor X27 168 Stepper Motor 3 green LEDs with built-in resistor 3 LEDs for the Ready/Latch/Disconnect box (and resistors if not built in) 3D printed parts from The Warthog Project Wiring 3 green LEDs , in parallel -> power and ground to one 12V circuit Arduino Nano (10 connections, plus USB) D11 to IR Sensor "OUT" D3 to EasyDriver DIR D2 to EasyDriver STEP GND to IR sensor GND GND to EasyDriver control GND (by STEP) 5V PWR to IR Sensor VCC D6 , D7 , D8 and ICSP GND (from the 6-pin cluster) routed out of box to later power the 3 LEDs below this compass unit ("ready", "latch", "disconnect") IR Sensor (3 connections) VCC to Nano 5V GND to Nano GND OUT to Nano D9 Stepper Motor (open it to remove tiny plastic stop tab, for 360 motion - 4 connections) Coil 1/A...
Read more

A-10C Standby Compass - Sun Shade

Image
 One of the final items to add to this instrument build (besides the text covers for the lower LEDs) was the sun shade for the AR LED box.  I made this out of thin aluminum sheets , cutting it from a template using some metal sheers .    My template was created by tracing some of the actual artwork from the DCS sim, and then scaling it to the proper size. It turned out ok, not perfect but pretty good.  Primed and painted it and then installed it using 2 of the 4 holes that were already on the LED box 3D print.  I used some heat inserts in those holes to give the screws something to bite, but the holes are really too big for my inserts so had to use some glue to help out.  
Read more

A10-C Standby Compass: Final Setup

Image
Got everything soldered together (after likely damaging one EasyDriver and moving to a backup) and squeezed it into the case.  At first I thought the compass wheel was much too high but then I realized the front bezel was installed upside down. Used an Exacto knife to cut a piece of acrylic for the front glass and put a small vertical sticker on it to act as the reference line.  Not super pretty but works ok until I can cut with a laser instead (maybe an xTool). Getting everything to fit was trickier than I expected, but it all worked out without too much rework required.  I used some 5.5mm x 2.1mm plugs for the 12v power plugs (tip/center was positive).   For the aerial refueling LEDs I used some more LEDs that have resistors built-in.  They are made for 12v so will likely bit a little dim since I am powering them off the digital out 5v pins from the Nano.  Don't have a way to make the lens for those yet so will wait to see if that is the case.  ...
Read more