Flying meets video game.

It would be really useful if they could incorporate it into a HUD display. I heard the future will bring windshields that diplay the terrian and traffic around you, even when flying in 0 vis... just like you were looking out the window on a clear day. I'm sure we'll be amazed at what the next 20 years will bring.
 
BigGuyFlying said:
Hey Polar, I can try to answer some of your questions. I've flown on the steam gauges for 60 hours, and now the G1000 for 60 hours, and now I'm alternating between the two. I prefer the G1000 hands down, it has so many helpful features.

It has a redundant screen. If the PFD dies, you hit the emerg. backup display and the AHRS will load on the MFD screen. If both go out, you use the standby instruments which are powered through a seperate static system and use the magnetic compass.

Each flight school does their own G1000 training, I used the King Schools G1000 course and roughly about 5 hours of dual to get used to it. I haven't even begun the IFR portion of it yet, but there is a LOT of stuff to learn. I haven't really come across any training about mismanagement, but I have made a few mistakes while flying the G1000 that I know I won't make again. One time I was flying over the coast and was turning back towards PIE, so I scanned the area just before I began a standard right turn towards the airport. About 15 seconds after I started it, the traffic awareness in the plane went off, I glanced at the MFD quickly and noticed that the other aircraft was right next to me at the same altitude, what I didn't notice is that I had the map zoomed out quite a bit, so it showed that he was right next to us. Needless to say, I panicked a little, but thankfully nothing happened, I started a sharp right climbout and never actually did see the other plane.
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Thanks for the good info.

I'm not trying to make any points, I just know nothing about fancy avionics in GA. I have no dog in the fight one way or another, but your post brings up more questions.

Let's say you're doing instrument training. Does the flight school have you shoot approaches using the MFD or the standby guages?
Is there a separate OBS or HSI device to shoot an ILS?
What happens if the Alternator dies? Do you have VHF nav and comm?
Let's say you're set up to do a nice arrival to MCO18L, they change it close in to MCO 36R. How long would it take to reprogram the device?

BTW...I saw the flight path vector. Prolly the best thing I've used in instrument flying. I like almost as much as the RMI
 
I don't agree with everyones negative feedback on this stuff. I think its great! Its an advancement in technology. I agree that the training needs to be on par with the new advancements but I don't think that theoretically if I were flying this plane I would be more complacent than if I were flying any other plane. I would have a hard time trusting it just as the old salty 121 guys have trouble trusting the glass in any modern airliner. The timely advances in initial training will decide whether this becomes a great advancement or another crutch to lazy aviators. With the amount of info these systems offer it would be sad to see them go away due to laziness on the part of instructors and pilots.
 
Got information that this option will be available on the Diamond DA40 series for $9995. They will determine retrofits later in the year. They had it on display on a DA40XLS at Sun 'n fun.
 
Polar742 said:
Thanks for the good info.

I'm not trying to make any points, I just know nothing about fancy avionics in GA. I have no dog in the fight one way or another, but your post brings up more questions.

Let's say you're doing instrument training. Does the flight school have you shoot approaches using the MFD or the standby guages?
Is there a separate OBS or HSI device to shoot an ILS?
What happens if the Alternator dies? Do you have VHF nav and comm?
Let's say you're set up to do a nice arrival to MCO18L, they change it close in to MCO 36R. How long would it take to reprogram the device?

BTW...I saw the flight path vector. Prolly the best thing I've used in instrument flying. I like almost as much as the RMI
Click to expand...

I have lots of time with the Avidyne in the Cirrus and a few hours behind a G1000. With respect to failures, training can take place a number of different ways. In the Cirrus, if the PFD fails, you only have the steam gauges to rely on...however the autopilot is still functional and will fly coupled to the GPS. So you can do GPS approaches and direct to if you don't want to try and hand fly it (and believe me, compass turns in the plane are a complete joke.) On checkrides, the FAA will not pull any circuit breakers, so you have to simulate a failure by dimming down the PFD until it is unreadable. The Cirrus training/POH says to pull the circuit breaker. For training purposes I practiced/taught both ways.

The G1000 is a little harder to get used to, but I like it better. Whereas the Avidyne has an ADC and AHRS but external GPS units (ironically Garmin 430s) the G1000 integrates GPS, NAV/COMs and the ADC AHRS units. One of the screens can fail, but all of the radios and such can be controlled by the other screen. As someone mentioned, the G1000 has a 'reversionary' mode where the ADC and AHRS data along with some limited engine data transfers from the PFD to the MFD. It will happen automatically in the event of a failure, or can be done manually if the automatic system fails for for training purposes.

On both systems, reprogramming of routing is probably simpler than in many FMSs. The G1000 GPS interface is similar to the 430 and 530 series. Selecting a new approach or arrival is a fairly easy. Single engine airplanes with glass systems do have two power sources. In the Cirrus it has a two alternator system. One alternator can provide power to everything, while a second alternator powers only the essential bus. There are also two batteries that in theory provide power for at least a half hour in the event of total alternator failure. The downside is that the standby attitude indicator is electric, so if you get hit by lightning....you may be out of luck. I don't remember the Cessna and Diamond backup power setups for the G1000, but they have at least some way of powering the essentials for 30 minutes or so. To answer your question about the HSI/OBS, that has been one major failing I've seen. In the Cirrus (and I think the Cessnas and Diamonds unless they have two PFDs) you only have one OBS/HSI. The CDI gets it's information from either the GPS or one of the nav receivers. You can only have one CDI at a time, the other nav information is displayed in RMI format. I would like to see some way to have a 2nd OBS head. On planes with dual PFD's (Citation Mustang or probably the Caravan come to mind) you would have this capability.

Sorry for the long-winded and somewhat scatterbrained reply. This is one area where I have a fair amount of experience...although it is fading as I am not actively teaching anymore. To sum up, they present impressive amounts of information and were great to have experience with before moving to the Citation which has the honeywell system in it. I would agree with some of the thoughts expressed about lazyness and poor scan (we'll see how bad it is when I fly a 210 to Talladega next weekend). For the average student, I advocate learning primary and instrument flying on the round dials and then transitioning to glass afterwords as I think the skills are a little harder and therefore it is easier to go from round to glass than vice versa. That being said, I had an interesting time with a student in his turbo Cirrus working on an instrument rating. The FAA is recognizing that TAA airplanes are a little different and cannot be tested (and perhaps trained) the same way as more traditional planes and is developing guidlines for exams and possibly additional training requirements or endorsements or certificate limitations a la centerline thrust limits for multi's. I don't think there's any danger of this stuff going away, but I think the old way needs to be taught as long as the majority of the GA fleet still has round gauges.
 
Where do they derive the ground level data from? In the military we used DTED from NIMA, which is a very data-intensive system and only has information from a very limited portion of the world. We get updates on CDROM often.

More importantly, how are they going to be able have the data required to show CURRENT depictions of towers and power lines?!

This is something we pay a lot of attention to in the military fighter business, and we are constantly having to CHUM maps to keep them current with the changes to low obstructions like this.

I can't imagine how many daily/weekly/monthly updates to this system there would have to be to keep it "legal".

The guys who use it would need a USB stick or something that they could download the updates to RIGHT BEFORE flying.
 
The G1000 Autorecords the last 12? ATC transmitions... Excellent when u need to clear your name ;)

Back when i did training with it, Cessna and Garmin were at ends... One company said pull the breakers to simulate failures, another said not to. The DE i sent my student up with only had 1 comment. Thank god it's got an auto pilot with all those buttons. She (of much aviation history) was amazed, but felt that it was turning people into flight co-ordinators, not pilots.
 
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