Glass Cockpit Time

F

Future DIA Pilot

New Member
Could someone please give me their opinion on whether it would be worth it to pay about $2000 extra getting a private in a glass cockpit? At my local flight school, an instructor is telling me that if I want to work for an airline someday, glass time could be very important.

Thanks so much for your help. :)
 
Glass cockpit time for a private is laughable at best. You DO NOT need it at all before you get to the airlines. I would get a new instructor!


Welcome to Jetcareers.
 
Baby steps DIA. Once you get a good solid scan, transitioning to the glass cockpit is no big deal. The information is still displayed in the same places, the format is just a little different.
 
Well 1st of all welcome aborad! 2nd I fly at a place that has gotten to a point where we almost only have glass cockpit. Basically our package for our Glass Cockpit training is only 500 more then the R model training. So most do the glass. However a few key points:

1st: In order to become profecient with flying I believe you need to become able to develop a great scan in addition you need to have situational awareness. If using the glass you are able to have a map and if your CFI does not turn that screen off I've noticed a lot of new ppl students do not have the situational awareness that many who did a training in a non glass cockpit do have.

2nd: 2000 more is just out of control. Like I mentioned our glass cockpit course is only 500 more! The glass I also believe is harder to learn and will take more time due to the complex nature of it. And on a checkride you have to know your plane and therefore the entire systems of the g-1000 and glass cockpit.

3rd: What are you going to do if you are put into a normal six pack? I think its a great thing to do primary training in a 6-pac and then transition over to the glass as a combination when doing your instrument.

I dunno I am still relatively new. But at my place we nearly exclusively only train in glass and those are some of the things I've noticed lately. Ultimately its your choice, why spend 2k more on glass? Not worth it!
 
Save the 2 grand. The glass in the Cessna or whatever is very different from the glass in an airliner. Get the basics down, and the scan up.

When you eventually get to an airline - they will teach you their system. Save the 2 grand - it's a waste of money.
 
Future DIA Pilot said:
So it wouldn't help me a great deal for getting a job with an airline if I had a lot of glass time?
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If that's all you had it could hurt you, but if all you had was round-dial time, that would not hurt you unless you were up against a person who had a lot of time and was proficient in BOTH.

I think you need to learn the basic aviating first, and would highly discourage learning to fly in a glass cockpit.
 
Take that extra 2g's and put it aside for your more advanced degrees....your gonna need it.

I don't think i've ever seen an application with a column for "glass" cockpit time. ....Hell i've still never seen a glass cockpit in person.
 
Future DIA Pilot said:
So it wouldn't help me a great deal for getting a job with an airline if I had a lot of glass time?
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Not at all. Switching to glass should not be an issue at the point where you're ready to step into an airplane with it. In fact, if you decide you want to go freight, I'd say a lack of gauge-time would be MUCH more of an issue.
 
The flight training handbook recommends that 85%of your time VFR should be spent outside looking for traffic and such. I can tell you as an instructor most private pilot students want to stare at whatever is in the cockpit. I think it's natural curiosity. I recommend primary training in the airplane that has the least amount of instrumentation you can find. The best would be a cub or champ, something like that. Trust me what gets you the job someday is your skill as a pilot. There is going to be a generation of pilots who can't fly WITHOUT glass. Your mind has to be as good or better than any MFD glass display. You need to have situational awareness without a moving map.
 
Texasspilot said:
I don't think i've ever seen an application with a column for "glass" cockpit time.
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No, but there certainly are check boxes for glass time.

That said, it's a waste at ANY point in the flight training environment. It normally takes just a few hours to adapt. I have a much harder time going BACK to round dial now then I did going to glass.
 
"an instructor is telling me that if I want to work for an airline someday, glass time could be very important"

Your CFI is highly misinformed. You should send him here to see why. If he persists, you should fire him.
 
You'll probably have an easier time transitioning from 'steam gauge' to glass than you would from glass to 'steam gauge' IMHO. I'd really hate for you to spend extra money for glass training and then end up having your first job be a navajo with the basic six pack WITHOUT an HSI. Talk about a rude awakening.

I flew with a lot of guys in the simulator that were merely private pilots (or not even pilots at all) at the Alteon tour and they have NO PROBLEM interpreting the instruments, either steam gauge or glass.

I don't think it's that much of an issue. But I could be wrong!
 
Future DIA Pilot said:
At my local flight school, an instructor is telling me that if I want to work for an airline someday, glass time could be very important.
Click to expand...

I would be curious to know as to why he thinks you will have a better shot working for a airline based on glass time other than the whole screen/systems functions.
 
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