Had my first G-1000 flight today

nddons

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Aug 4, 2007
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Waukesha County, WI
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Stan
I flew with an instructor in a G1000 Skyhawk today to KEFT and KMSN (with a great lunch at Wisconsin Aviation!) It was a beautiful day to fly, but with some turbulence and all that glass, my workload felt pretty high. It was also my first trip to a Class Charlie in a couple of years.

Thank goodness for the KAP 140. I don't think I would have learned that much if I had to hold heading and altitude without an autopilot today. As it was I really tried to fight the head-down feeling and tried to look outside as much as I do in any other flight. I also learned to use the A/P when being vectored around MSN's airspace - now that is a whole lot better than hand flying in turbulence.

The capabilities of the G1000 seem incredible to me, and that was just for a VFR orientation. It is definitely a system that I would like to fly on longer cross countries, but I plan on a long instructor-assisted learning curve. I've read the Max Trescott book, but will re-read it now after having flown with the system.

Besides all of the button pushing and twisting, I'm finding the airspeed tape to be a little tough to get used to. It's almost like looking through iron sites vs. a rifle scope - what looks rock solid through iron sites (i.e. steam airspeed indicator) looks like its a moving target through a scope. Consequently my speed control needs some work using that tape.

I'm glad Cessna put the backup instruments low and in the center - I didn't have this overwhelming desire to cheat using the backup instruments as I did on a Cirrus which was right in front of the pilot.

Overall I'm very impressed, but until I'm very proficient with it, I would not be comfortable flying it solo with only a single set of eyes looking outside.
 
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