I "adopted" a fairly new private student from a friend dealing with medical issues. I soloed him a few weeks ago but lousy weather and his written has held us up a bit. He finally took and passed his written with an 88 yesterday so today we launched into instrument training under the hood.
He's been flying our Jabiru with the GRT glass panel. While I have transitioned some pilots from steam gauges to glass before, this is my first ab initio student who has only flown glass.
I briefed him on scan techniques, then we were off.
On climb out I took the controls while he donned the hood. Then, for close to an hour he was never more than 60 feet off assigned altitude, or more than five degrees off course, or more than five knots off airspeed. We did climbs, descents, turns....everything and he just nailed it all!
At one point he asked me what the "black bars" on the screen were. I explained that they were the runways at a nearby airport being displayed on the synthetic vision. Upon our return to KFCM I decided to see how well the synthetic vision might work for a newbie pilot. Once the "black bars" appeared I told him to keep them centered in his aiming point, which he did with ease. I gave him altitude step downs and airspeed changes along the way while he stayed focused on the ever-growing runway depiction. We were cleared to land on 28L so I told him to line up on the left parallel, which he did without a problem.
At about 400' and a half mile I had him look up to see us perfectly aligned with the runway, just above the glide path and right on our final approach speed. He proceeded to make a perfect landing.
I wouldn't have believed this result had I not witnessed it first hand. It was truly remarkable to watch. Technology...appropriately applied, can be a wonderful thing!
He's been flying our Jabiru with the GRT glass panel. While I have transitioned some pilots from steam gauges to glass before, this is my first ab initio student who has only flown glass.
I briefed him on scan techniques, then we were off.
On climb out I took the controls while he donned the hood. Then, for close to an hour he was never more than 60 feet off assigned altitude, or more than five degrees off course, or more than five knots off airspeed. We did climbs, descents, turns....everything and he just nailed it all!
At one point he asked me what the "black bars" on the screen were. I explained that they were the runways at a nearby airport being displayed on the synthetic vision. Upon our return to KFCM I decided to see how well the synthetic vision might work for a newbie pilot. Once the "black bars" appeared I told him to keep them centered in his aiming point, which he did with ease. I gave him altitude step downs and airspeed changes along the way while he stayed focused on the ever-growing runway depiction. We were cleared to land on 28L so I told him to line up on the left parallel, which he did without a problem.
At about 400' and a half mile I had him look up to see us perfectly aligned with the runway, just above the glide path and right on our final approach speed. He proceeded to make a perfect landing.
I wouldn't have believed this result had I not witnessed it first hand. It was truly remarkable to watch. Technology...appropriately applied, can be a wonderful thing!
Last edited:
+10 
.