The slowly death of General Aviation in the U.S.

HerrGruyere said:
My friends are still amazed that the dinky 172 I fly doesn't simply fall out of the sky.
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That's why my girlfriend's first small airplane ride was in a Remos GX LSA....Much more appealing to the general public than a squeaky 172 built before airline deregulation, and cheaper to operate.
 
Not sure about GA death in US but in PA it's blooming :)


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Richman said:
And guess what? That G1000 goes tango uniform on you, you are A O G with not just a VSI that died, but the whole shootin' match. Can't just placard it INOP and fly home VFR.
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Actually, you can. At least in all of the G1000 installations I've seen (C172, C182, C206, SR22, DA40).

Richman said:
I can replace the instruments in my six pack in the panel of my airplane 4 or 5 times over with what one Aspen unit costs. And that's with NEW stuff. Plus I'm not limited to just one supplier.
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A couple things to consider. One is the reliability of the glass cockpits versus mechanical instruments. I've worked around both styles of instrumentation quite a bit and from what I've seen, mechanical instruments have a higher rate of failure. I can't say with certainty, but I believe the hourly maintenance costs on a glass panel are either on par or lower than that of a conventional panel. Even if I'm wrong about the dollars and cents, I'd still rather have a glass cockpit, from a reliability standpoint, than a conventional six pack when flying in instrument weather.

The other point to consider is what a person wants to get out of flying. The demographic of pilots who fly old 152s with conventional panels versus new SR-22s with glass panels is night and day different. They each have different priorities and different areas they're willing to spend money on. I don't think it's fair to say all aircraft ought to have one type of panel or another.

Richman said:
Better yet, fast forward a couple of years when Garmin or Aspen decides that their display is "end of life", and you're only option is to buy a new model from them at 2x the price. Meanwhile, the steam gauge guys buying their stuff from Spruce and keep on trucking.
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I guess we all got screwed on those G430 GPS units, huh?

Garmin put the 430 into production in 1997 and only recently discontinued production, although they're still offering support indefinitely.

I suspect G1000 installations will probably be similar. Produce them up through about 2020 or so, and support them up through 2030 or so. That would equate to about 15 years of production and about 25 years of support. Nothing lasts forever, but I think these time frames are plenty reasonable. By the time G1000s are discontinued, there will be something even better on the market that pilots want to upgrade to anyway...my money is on HUDs.


By the way, I have nothing against conventional panels. They have their place. But to say glass panels are somehow a bad thing, ought not to be installed, or will somehow contribute to the decline of GA flying...that's nonsense, IMO.
 
It's a plane I have over 600 hours in. I'd say an hour would would be fair, but not a mandatory 5, because it has the G1000. I did a lot of aircraft checkouts and easily knew with in the first 15 minutes how the checkout was going to end. They made the G1000 out to be the equivalent of flying the space shuttle.
 
Bandit_Driver said:
It's a plane I have over 600 hours in. I'd say an hour would would be fair, but not a mandatory 5, because it has the G1000. I did a lot of aircraft checkouts and easily knew with in the first 15 minutes how the checkout was going to end. They made the G1000 out to be the equivalent of flying the space shuttle.
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Find somewhere else. I think I was told 5, ended up being 1.5...
 
Bandit_Driver said:
It's a plane I have over 600 hours in. I'd say an hour would would be fair, but not a mandatory 5, because it has the G1000. I did a lot of aircraft checkouts and easily knew with in the first 15 minutes how the checkout was going to end. They made the G1000 out to be the equivalent of flying the space shuttle.
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Probably insurance company mandated, to be honest with you. Although, if you don't have G430/530 or G1000 experience, you aren't going to know how to use the thing very well at less than 5 hours. VFR, you'll be fine, end up needing to be IFR and the G1000 will eat your lunch if you don't know how to use it properly.
 
Bandit_Driver said:
It's a plane I have over 600 hours in. I'd say an hour would would be fair, but not a mandatory 5, because it has the G1000. I did a lot of aircraft checkouts and easily knew with in the first 15 minutes how the checkout was going to end. They made the G1000 out to be the equivalent of flying the space shuttle.
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Find somewhere else. I think I was told 5, ended up being 1.5...
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
Probably insurance company mandated, to be honest with you. Although, if you don't have G430/530 or G1000 experience, you aren't going to know how to use the thing very well at less than 5 hours. VFR, you'll be fine, end up needing to be IFR and the G1000 will eat your lunch if you don't know how to use it properly.
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I've got time ton of crap including the 430's. I agree taking it up IFR would be foolish, but VFR sight seeing is basic stick and rudder. 5 hours on G1000 ground trainer would be more beneficial than burning holes in the sky with it, IMO...
 
Bandit_Driver said:
It's a plane I have over 600 hours in. I'd say an hour would would be fair, but not a mandatory 5, because it has the G1000. I did a lot of aircraft checkouts and easily knew with in the first 15 minutes how the checkout was going to end. They made the G1000 out to be the equivalent of flying the space shuttle.
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Insurance/paranoia. Again.
 
Funny how checkouts vary. I checked out in a Warrior at the school I got my PPL through and it required a 1.7 hour replication of the PPL practical. Checked out in a 150 at some country field in the middle of nowhere Ohio and the guy had me make a few steep turns, two T&Gs and we brought it in at 0.7 Like Bandit said, that guy said he knew within 15-minutes if I was going to be checked out.
 
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