First IFR/G1000 Experience

[numl0ck]

Right in line with Nate/Denver Pilot's thread...

I had my first IFR experience yesterday as a young-budding student pilot. My CFII had called me at work asking me if I wanted to go to Nantucket in a brand new 182, G1000. "Geee, let me think about that...um YES!" He was flying/instructing a student (“the Doctor”, who also owns the plane) who wasn't IFR rated.

We flew from Groton CT to Nantucket (GON - ACK). The weather was iffy, so we got our clearance and off we went. We decided to keep the IFR the whole way even though conditions were VFR. It was good practice for the Doctor who had been working on his IFR slowly. We ended up shooting the approach for 33 into ACK. Man, I thought there was a lot going on when you’re just landing the plane in VFR, I was wrong. The Doctor admitted to the instructor that he was “lost in the G1000 display and had no idea where he actually was”, and now I understand why. G1000 is awesome, but there’s so much information to process. I’m happy to be learning in old steam gauges.

So my instructor and I departed ACK with IFR clearance. The clouds had rolled in so we would need it most of the way back to GON. It was a completely different experience than being in a commercial jet flying through and on top of clouds. There’s just something different about watching the clouds come straight at you vs. going by you. The ceiling had lifted to 5000' when we decended to GON, so we cancelled our IFR flight plan and landed visually.


Now, I still have to finish up my PPL (hopefully in the next couple months), but now I have even more reason to start pursuing the IFR cert. Had I flown my wife/friends to ACK for lunch we would have been stuck there for who knows how long because the low clouds moved in and I would have had to divert or turn back over Martha’s Vineyard.

It was an awesome experience. I’m really glad I decided to tag along, and I was thankful for the phone call.

Side note: It must be nice to have enough money to buy a brand new 182 (250 hours total) and then pay an instructor to fly it for you when you can’t. It’s like your own private air charter service.

 

[denverpilot]

Fun isn't it?

To be clear, I don't have any problem at all with G1000 for IMC. I just think lots of folks get the video game mentality and stare inside at it when it's VMC. The Earth outside usually makes for a much bigger and much better AI and you might see traffic. Heads down, you never will.

Sounds like the Doc is still learning where to look for things and also hasn't had that "ah-ha" moment about the relatively giant attitude indicator there in front of him. He can just set a power, and pitch with the AI, and the airplane will settle out at a speed. No need to go looking all over the place on the G1000. If there was one instrument I tended to leave out of my scan too much, it was the AI at first.

In fact, getting the G1000 set up for the approach is most of the "battle". After that, all the info is there in a nice format. The airplane will holler at you with blinking warnings for most any other problems so you can generally ignore the other info if you're overloade and just fly the giant AI and the Flight Director. It's a good system for that. I wonder what the Doc was looking for.

 

[numl0ck]

It is indeed a really slick system. Being an IT guy and having the ability to fly right-seat on the way home was really cool. I was able to actually twist the nobs and push the buttons to start to understand the interface. There is still A METRIC ASSTON of information presented to you and you have to know where to look (as you mentioned above) to find it: is it on the right screen or the left one? Are you on the correct page? Which nob does what? Even something as simple as setting the squawk code, you have to know what buttons to push and where to look. Veerrryyyy different from the steam gauge config.

I can absolutely understand why flying in VMC one would never look outside the cockpit. You see traffic alerts and the synthetic reality, so why would you bother? It's probably that mentality that gets people killed.

 

[denverpilot]

I'd bet BIG money the Cirrus driver that plowed into the glider towplane over Boulder was heads down playing with the toys.

 

[L.Adamson]

I'd bet BIG money the Cirrus driver that plowed into the glider towplane over Boulder was heads down playing with the toys.

And at the same time, I'm sure that all of those unfortunate souls who plowed into mountains (CFIT)..........wished they had some of these so-called "toys". That's just a phenomenon that's happened decade after decade, after decade..

In the meantime, there has been a much needed push to simplify the menu & page systems with the newest "glass", for much easier access.

Other than that..............learn the system first, then fly. With computer simulations, and on-line help, airborne time doesn't have to be wasted. I've personally found, that my "head" is much more out of the cockpit, than it ever was, with just "paper" & dials.

BTW--- I do absolutely go nut's, when the term "toy" is used.....does it show?

L.Adamson

 

[denverpilot]

And at the same time, I'm sure that all of those unfortunate souls who plowed into mountains (CFIT)..........wished they had some of these so-called "toys". That's just a phenomenon that's happened decade after decade, after decade..

Didn't work for the crew that had 20,000+ hours combined in the CAP 182 in Arizona, since:

A) They were probably on the wrong screen.
B) The system isn't really a terrain warning system, or it would have SWITCHED to that screen and started alarming.

BTW--- I do absolutely go nut's, when the term "toy" is used.....does it show?

Hadn't noticed really.

The hardest part about advanced avionics systems isn't just learning how to operate them, but also knowing and being keenly aware of their limitations.

And VMC, most of them are distractions. I see an awful lot of folks hop in, fire up, take off, and THEN try to enter the flight plan into the boxes. That's not right.

Even Foreflight can be an unnecessary distraction at times. I haven't seen the video footage yet, but my co-owner critiqued his Oshkosh arrival after watching it saying "I spent too much time heads down..." after watching the video, he said he knew where he was by the landmarks, but saw himself look down at the iPad in his lap multiple times during the Ripon-Fisk-OSH arrival in the video.

Perhaps that's a good way to catch it in oneself... Shoot some video and then look at it. See if your head is outside or looking at gadgets. I suspect we all fall prey to it more than we think we do.

 

[Threefingeredjack]

The hardest part about advanced avionics systems isn't just learning how to operate them, but also knowing and being keenly aware of their limitations.

I just have to shake my head at blanket comments like "The xyz2000 is not good for basic instruction", or "The ABC 21003423 shouldn't be used for blah blah." It's a freaking machine folks All that is required is self-discipline and rigid adherence to procedure. People who blame equipment for their own poor judgment/skills are not fooling anyone but themselves.