Techniques Sought for Teaching Students in G1000-Equipped Aircraft

[Nihon_Ni]

I'm taking on a couple of students who own G1000-equipped aircraft who are still in training for the PPL. I'm looking for tips and techniques from CFIs who have trained students in glass aircraft on how to ensure they understand the fundamentals of flying and don't become G1000 cripples.

I'm considering having the students just use the PFD without the aid of the flight director, auto pilot or GPS navigation for the majority of the training syllabus. I plan to teach old school-style cross country navigation with a paper chart and a nav log (oh the humanity!) as the best way to teach the fundamentals of navigating. I plan introduce full functions of the G1000 towards the end of training, so they have a more complete skill set. Both students want to immediately begin instrument training after they are certified, so that's where they will really learn to maximize the G1000. Of course I'll talk to the local DPE to see what his expectations are for the PPL checkride, but that's really not the point of my question. I want to make sure I produce a capable pilot, not just a button-mashing, magenta-line-following, head-down-in-the-cockpit private pilot.

If anyone has input from experience, I would be greatly appreciate it.

 

[deadstick]

Your intent sounds good, but a word of caution: if they present for the practical with that aircraft, they have to be proficient with everything. If you wait until the end to go over those items, their proficiency might be an issue. They own the airplane. They (probably) won’t go rent a ragged-out 172M with Cesscom radios.

For basic control, I’d cover/dim the screens and get them looking outside and getting accustomed to the cowl’s position on the horizon and the sound of the engine. One day, I’d throw in sand bags to take it up to gross weight and do it again. Many of the people I flew with were good at staying inside because of the early PC flight simulators (small window/big instruments), but they had issues with purely visual flying and trimming because of the lack of feed-back in the controls.

 

[Karnage]

About 1000 hours teaching in G1000s. It's all anecdotal but...

First start with the G1000 guide for designated pilot examiners and certified flight instructors found here:
https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/training/fits/guidance/media/G1000.pdf

The longer you hide it from them, the bigger a distraction and temptation it becomes. Once we got out of the immediate area of the airport and int the practice area, for the first 3 or 4 lessons were flown around with the PFD dimmed beyond usefulness and the MFD set to traffic only. Focused on visual reference and using non-instrument clues for things like pitch, altitude, course, etc. Still had the standby gauges for speed, altitude, and attitude, but tried to get the students to focus outside. By about lesson 5, I never bothered dimming the PFD, just kept the students busy enough that they never had time to focus on the panel. Make sure that before their solo cross countries that they have a basic understanding of using the thing for navigation. Perhaps it's just the cynic in me but no matter how much I focused training on paper chart navigation and pilotage, they inevitably got in for their solos and just used the GPS.

In my experience, I had better luck starting out letting them use it all and get over loaded and then walk back and let them discover that it's easier to do things by outside reference and not focusing on the instruments. Let them realize that the G1000 is going to take them a long time to master and show them how much simpler things can be without it. I wish there was an option in the G1000 menus, but teach them how to mentally de-clutter the displays to only be looking at the things that they would be using to verify their visual references (speed, attitude, altitude, etc). But at the same time don't treat it like some forbidden fruit or that they can't use it at all. It's got to be integrated from day one, as it can be a useful tool even in VFR flying to allow for more time to focus outside and less time searching around inside the cockpit for information since things are displayed more clearly than old school round dials.

Honestly though, any low time pilot in a Technologically Advanced Aircraft is going to become overly enamored and slightly obsessed with all the high-tech wizardry. Especially if it's an aircraft they own, they probably aren't going to be thrilled with you telling them they can't use something they spent a fair chunk of change on. Outside of them renting an old school round dial plane, your best bet is to let them get overloaded with the G1000 and then guide them through the other ways of doing things. But honestly, if they never intend to fly non-TAA aircraft, beyond teaching them to look outside and to be situationally aware without the TIS/GPS, forcing them to do things old school will just make them lose interest.

That's not to say you shouldn't give them instruction in the fundamentals and make sure they have a good understanding of the underlying knowledge and skill, but it will be done as more of a ground school lesson and testing and less of a practical application. Forcing someone to navigate using paper charts and a hand written nav log will do them no good when they never plan on navigating with anything less than their in-airplane GPS and a ForeFlight generated nav log. In that case, you would be better off teaching them how to avoid garbage in-garbage out programming than how to do things circa 1930.

 

[Nihon_Ni]

Your intent sounds good, but a word of caution: if they present for the practical with that aircraft, they have to be proficient with everything. If you wait until the end to go over those items, their proficiency might be an issue. They own the airplane. They (probably) won’t go rent a ragged-out 172M with Cesscom radios.

For basic control, I’d cover/dim the screens and get them looking outside and getting accustomed to the cowl’s position on the horizon and the sound of the engine. One day, I’d throw in sand bags to take it up to gross weight and do it again. Many of the people I flew with were good at staying inside because of the early PC flight simulators (small window/big instruments), but they had issues with purely visual flying and trimming because of the lack of feed-back in the controls.

Thanks, good points! And no, they certainly won't be renting a steam gauge anything.

That's a good point about proficiency of the G1000 prior to the checkride. When I taught my wife to fly in our Yankee, I pulled the fuse in our Loran and put an "INOP" sticker on it, and it stayed there until after her checkride. I certainly can't do that with the G1000.

One of the guys plans to use the airplane to travel for work reasons. I have laid out a plan with him to do old school cross country navigation, and then we'll use the full power of the G1000 on these business trips. That might be the balance we need to get him proficient in the G1000, but able to fly without it.

 

[Nihon_Ni]

About 1000 hours teaching in G1000s. It's all anecdotal but...

First start with the G1000 guide for designated pilot examiners and certified flight instructors found here:
https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/training/fits/guidance/media/G1000.pdf

The longer you hide it from them, the bigger a distraction and temptation it becomes. Once we got out of the immediate area of the airport and int the practice area, for the first 3 or 4 lessons were flown around with the PFD dimmed beyond usefulness and the MFD set to traffic only. Focused on visual reference and using non-instrument clues for things like pitch, altitude, course, etc. Still had the standby gauges for speed, altitude, and attitude, but tried to get the students to focus outside. By about lesson 5, I never bothered dimming the PFD, just kept the students busy enough that they never had time to focus on the panel. Make sure that before their solo cross countries that they have a basic understanding of using the thing for navigation. Perhaps it's just the cynic in me but no matter how much I focused training on paper chart navigation and pilotage, they inevitably got in for their solos and just used the GPS.

In my experience, I had better luck starting out letting them use it all and get over loaded and then walk back and let them discover that it's easier to do things by outside reference and not focusing on the instruments. Let them realize that the G1000 is going to take them a long time to master and show them how much simpler things can be without it. I wish there was an option in the G1000 menus, but teach them how to mentally de-clutter the displays to only be looking at the things that they would be using to verify their visual references (speed, attitude, altitude, etc). But at the same time don't treat it like some forbidden fruit or that they can't use it at all. It's got to be integrated from day one, as it can be a useful tool even in VFR flying to allow for more time to focus outside and less time searching around inside the cockpit for information since things are displayed more clearly than old school round dials.

Honestly though, any low time pilot in a Technologically Advanced Aircraft is going to become overly enamored and slightly obsessed with all the high-tech wizardry. Especially if it's an aircraft they own, they probably aren't going to be thrilled with you telling them they can't use something they spent a fair chunk of change on. Outside of them renting an old school round dial plane, your best bet is to let them get overloaded with the G1000 and then guide them through the other ways of doing things. But honestly, if they never intend to fly non-TAA aircraft, beyond teaching them to look outside and to be situationally aware without the TIS/GPS, forcing them to do things old school will just make them lose interest.

That's not to say you shouldn't give them instruction in the fundamentals and make sure they have a good understanding of the underlying knowledge and skill, but it will be done as more of a ground school lesson and testing and less of a practical application. Forcing someone to navigate using paper charts and a hand written nav log will do them no good when they never plan on navigating with anything less than their in-airplane GPS and a ForeFlight generated nav log. In that case, you would be better off teaching them how to avoid garbage in-garbage out programming than how to do things circa 1930.

Great insights, thanks! I just downloaded that manual and will read it cover to cover.

 

[Jordan93]

First couple of lessons I cover the screens because they get too distracted. After a few lessons, we do a few ground lessons and hook up the GPU so they can learn the buttonology.

 

[drunkenbeagle]

If anyone has input from experience, I would be greatly appreciate it.

Teach to what they have, 'cause that's what they are going to be flying with. I don't think the G1000 is any more or less a distraction than dealing with a 430, a VOR, an NDB, two totally different radios, etc... At least the interface is mostly consistent.

Cover up the moving map most of the time. But that is really only an issue for VFR X/C (which isn't that much), and IFR training later (not your problem, yet).

Not knowing how to best use the autopilot can be as big a handicap as relying on it. So, you know, include setting that up too. Just get used to saying "crap, the AP broke, guess you are hand flying now" a lot.

 

[deadstick]

First couple of lessons I cover the screens because they get too distracted. After a few lessons, we do a few ground lessons and hook up the GPU so they can learn the buttonology.

The GPU is a good tool for learning the menus and pages, but there’s only so much you can do without it running and moving.