I heard that there are major differences, and I had plenty of time with G1000 simulator. But the FBO said they will count Cirrus towards their glass time requirements. And if the sim is FAA certified (Frasca SR-22, was told it is), they will count sim time as well.
Not too surprising - Even though there are differences between the G1000 variants, they're vastly more similar than flying with a different glass system or a six-pack.
Sunday is my checkout. It's kind of backwards. They will check me out in DA40 but I won't be able to fly it solo until I get other 2 hours of glass. Also, would be my first experience with constant speed propellers.
How'd it go?
Kind of worrying. I am used to Cessnas and Pipers. A T-tail, glass, stick, and constant speed prop is all new to me.
As you probably know by now, no biggie! Once you're flying, you won't know it's a T-tail. IMO, the DA40 t-tail flies a lot better than a T-tail Piper. The flying characteristics are delightful. Likewise, the stick should feel natural pretty quickly - 10 minutes into the flight, you'll be having fun and enjoying it so much you'll forget about the T-tail and the stick entirely.
One hint: Don't grab the stick, or rest your hand on it, or try too hard to move it. You'll be all over the place. Simply keep your hand surrounding, but not necessarily touching, the stick. Then just gently think it in the direction you want to go, and it'll go. It's not twitchy, but it's definitely more responsive than your average C or P bird. If you try to muscle it around like you're used to having to do on those, you'll likely be all over at first.
The C/S prop you'll notice a bit more - You have more to do in some ways. Google "Manifold Pressure Sucks" and read the excellent John Deakin article on AvWeb by that title. It gives a much better explanation of what's going on than any other publication I've ever read. There should be a link in that article to another one called "those marvelous props" or something like that that gives more details about the inner workings of the prop as well.
Bottom line, a C/S prop lets you "set it and forget it" when it comes to power, since airspeed changes will no longer change your RPM. I much prefer CS props to fixed pitch these days, and I suspect you will too once you're used to it. You'll likely have one RPM reduction on climbout, another when you transition to cruise, and the next time you change it will be after you pull the throttle back for your final descent and you're out of the governing range (ie, the prop has hit the flat-pitch stops and there's not enough power to maintain the RPM you had selected). That way when you push the prop all the way in during your last GUMPS checks you won't rev the engine way up, but you'll be ready for a go-around.
The glass panel will probably be the biggest thing to get used to - When you're used to reading round gauges, the tapes can require a bit more thought at first. You may notice a tendency to do the wrong thing in pitch at first - If you're looking at the Vy tag on the tape, and you get a little bit slow, your airspeed will be going down so the Vy tag goes up and if you chase it you'll nose up, which further slows you down and puts the Vy tag farther away.
Finally, even though you've got those spiffy displays, don't forget to look outside! It's still an airplane, it still obeys the same laws of physics, and you should still fly it by looking out the window as much as possible. There's traffic out there, and even if you have the traffic option on the G1000 it won't show any traffic that has no transponder or forgot to turn it on or is outside radar coverage or... etc. etc. So be sure you don't forget the basics.
Have fun!
