Glass cockpits like the Garmin G1000 have taken over the market in almost all new airplanes, and older aircrafts that are getting retrofitted with the glass technology too.
For experienced pilots, glass cockpits provide great tools and lots of pros.
Let’s dive into some of the big pros of flying with a glass cockpit.
The Future Is Glass Cockpits
Many manufacturers are only offering new airplanes with glass cockpits and moving farther away from analog gauges.
If you’re considering an aviation career, learning glass cockpit skills will be important for you.
All the airlines use glass cockpits, and most professional flying has moved to it as well. Soon most flight training organizations will conduct all their training in aircraft equipped with glass cockpits as well.
Glass Cockpits Offer the Best Available Technology and Safety
More and more resources to the development of training materials for glass cockpits are available since they are dominating the market for new aircraft.
The focus that aircraft manufacturers have on glass cockpit tech is reflected in the software and e-learning materials that the training market is providing for pilots.
One of the biggest advantages of glass cockpits is providing better situational awareness. Pilots can focus more of their time on decision-making and potential threats due to the moving map displays and clear primary flight displays.
Moving map displays also help pilots safely navigate around airports and avoid active runways, making ground operations safer as well.
Glass Cockpits Are More Expensive
Of course all this great stuff does come with a downfall and that can be the price. If you’ve searched for aircraft hourly rates, you will notice that training with full glass cockpits is normally more expensive
However, because of ongoing improvements in training, software, and flight simulation, you can accomplish glass cockpit training more cheaply and efficiently.
You can practice on a computer at home and in your flight school's flight simulator before using the avionics in a real airplane.
Simulator training saves time and money and allows you to learn a new avionics package on the ground instead of tinkering with unfamiliar screens.
Something To Keep In Mind
Whether you think glass cockpits are great or not they’re undoubtedly the future.
It is up to you to decide which avionics configuration you prefer to use early in your training.
Your budget, learning preferences, and flying goals should factor heavily into your decision.
Up and up! 🛫