Whatever the LAW is, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND getting checked out very well with the glass cockpit and to fly it in VMC for some time. I have flown it for almost 80 hours now and I can tell you that it’s a piece of cake in VMC – but in IMC it’s a completely different thing. And it’s not the glass cockpit as such. The wide AI is much easier to use and I got adapted to the speed and altitude tapes very quickly.
But the complexity of the WHOLE system is very high – and other than the manuals and advertisements want to tell you there is really many mistakes one can make. I realized that, again, this morning, when I flew practice approaches in heavy IMC. Turn the knob on the PFD in the wrong mode and all of a sudden your in a descent when you only wanted a heading change, have the autopilot in the wrong mode and follow the Flight Director directly to the Nirvana :-) The more I use it the more I realize that it’s actually easier to make fatal mistakes undiscovered than with the old steam gauges. Okay, some mistakes you will not make – but there’s hundreds of others and many of them you will only discover by making them.
Don’t take it too lightly. I am sure the glass cockpit is an incredible help for a proficient and experienced pilot. But it takes a while until you’re really safe. Or should I say: It took me a while, and still takes!
Very much so.
Even with my “simple” gear, all one needs to do is select a negative VS on the autopilot (to descend) and then either one of these two things will PROB100 kill you if you are not paying attention and the IMC goes down to the surface:
Normally, ARM gets armed automatically but with enough button fiddling it can get turned off.
And I think every autopilot is too stupid to warn if you set say minus 300fpm, at say 5000ft, and set the target to 6000ft 
The GFC700 in the TBM850 would certainly let you do it.
On this forum we have a lot of IT geeks who feel at home with this stuff, but I think the average G1000 pilot has real issues with the detail functionality. It will never get picked up because the two-yearly PPL revalidation is done in VMC, prob99 by an instructor who knows nothing about the equipment, and even the annual JAA IR revalidation is done in a very simple way… shoot an ILS, shoot an NDB or VOR approach, all using the basic kit, and that’s it. On the IR reval you can use a GPS for everything except the ILS but it is still used in a very simple way.
And I think every autopilot is too stupid to warn if you set say minus 300fpm, at say 5000ft, and set the target to 6000ft The GFC700 in the TBM850 would certainly let you do it.
Not the DFC90. It will keep the present altitude on such input. Also it will never do anything that results in airspeed getting near Vs or Vne and also limit bank.
I kind of like the fact that I have a full set of steam gauges next to my glass cockpit. Every time I’m in a Cirrus, I dislike the fact that the 3 steam gauges are outside the primary field of vision but that’s only because I have the mixed setup and so used to checking them as well. Most Cirrus pilots would probably say “ah those, you don’t need them, they are just for emergency, I never look at them”…
What has already happened twice to me was that I had set an altitude on the PFD before take-off, like 4000, and then by mistake dialed in -500 ft in the VSI window. After take-off I pressed VSI+ALT – and the plane descended … and it does not MATTER that you have the “4000” in the altitude window, it will still start a descent. Also, if don’t set the right knob on the PFD back to HDG – or don’t ait until this happens automatically after some seconds! – then you might dial in an altitude or sink rate when you omly wante dto change the heading.
What I already understood: There’s no way to fly that thing without STRICT procedures. In a steam gauge cockput most knobs and keys have ONE function … in the glass cockpit you always have to select the feature you want and THEN turn the right knob …, and if you are still under stress in IMC it happens so quickly that you turn a knob in the WRONG MODE.
I had my IFR check ride today. My friend Carlos, a LH 320 Captain was the examiner, and in the back seat I had a long time DC10 and B737 Captain. While they were BOTH very impressed with the glass cockpit (“it can do a couple of the things the 2320 cannot”) … they also agreed that this technology is not for the occasional/recreational pilot …
In today’s checkride I could very well see that some more training flights are necessary this spring before it will be safe to fly down to lower minimums. What’s REALLY tricky is the many different autopilot modes. Depending on some more or less obscure parameters (one example) the PFD will automatically switch the Nav Source for the HSI frm GPS to VLOC, taking advantage of the “AUTO ILS CDI” feature of the GNS430. This means that you can have an ILS approach as the last item in your GPS flight plan and that the system will AUTOMATICALLY switch from GPS to VLOC and set the CDI of the HSI to the right inbound course.
That’s the theory. Today, in 4 approaches it switched AUTOMATICALLY only once. And none of us had an idea why it did so, or why it didn’t. So Carlos told me to ONLY do it the safe way and do it all manually: Switch GNS430 to VLOC, switch PFD to VLOC, then dial in the Final course. It looks like (today) that this is the only way to be absoultely sure that everything is set correctly. Carlos also told me that he occasionally flies a Citation Jet which has a “similar feature” and that “it almost never works”. Do we need to know more?
Achim,
while i understand what you mean, I do not think that the backup gauges are outside the field of view in the Cirrus. They are right in front of you, a little low, but ok! And they are really only necessary if the AHRS or PFD fails (which is two different systems).
Yes, what’s really good about the DFC90 is the envelope protection. On my checkride today we tested it in IMC. A bit scary, i admit, to pull the power in the clouds and wait if it works, but it really works perfectly. The A/P will never stall the airplane, I am pretty sure.
Carlos also told me that he occasionally flies a Citation Jet which has a “similar feature” and that “it almost never works”.
Excuse me but that sounds like BS. I fly the CJ and it works all the time, provided the pilot sets everything up correctly, which I will confess is not always the case… It happened to me quite recently where it “didn’t work” but in fact it was just doing what I had asked it to, and I never asked it to switch. I’ll not reveal what I did wrong to reduce the level of insult to myself, but let’s just say I wasn’t impressed by the pilot… Lessons learned.
I don’t recall if the G1000 system of the DA40/42 had this feature? Is it a unique solution to the Cirrus Perspective perhaps?
I don’t recall if the G1000 system of the DA40/42 had this feature? Is it a unique solution to the Cirrus Perspective perhaps?
It’s a feature of the GNS430/530/GTN/G1000 etc. Called “Auto ILS CDI”. It works well for me but you have to approach the ILS in the right way, often when vectored the switch criteria are not met.
Part of the approach check is that everything is setup correctly.
PFD will automatically switch the Nav Source for the HSI frm GPS to VLOC
That is not true for my system, the GPS to VLOC switch is performed by the GNS430, not the PFD. The PFD can have multiple sources but in my case it is always switched to the GNS430, never to VOR2/ADF or the like. Therefore it gets the GPS to VLOC switch from the GNS430 and automatically updates. Nothing I have to do on the PFD. It will of course show that it’s on VLOC or GPS, same as the GNS430 in the lower left corner.
These super experienced mega pilots with airforce, B747, etc. experience are not necessarily competent to fly a Cirrus with Garmin avionics. You need specific systems knowledge. The Garmin GNS430 manual says it all in chapter 6.3 ILS approaches:
The GNS 430 can be set to automatically switch the
external CDI output from GPS to VLOC as the pilot
intercepts the final approach course. When the ILS
approach is activated, the GNS 430 automatically switches
within 1.2 nm left or right of the final approach course.
This switch can take place anywhere from 2.0 to 15.0 nm
from the FAF
NOTE: When intercepting the approach course
at a distance less than 2.0 nm from the FAF,
the GNS 430 does not automatically switch the
CDI to VLOC. In this case, press the CDI Key to
manually switch from GPS to VLOC.
Figure 6-72 shows multiple locations along the
approach path and the expected CDI selection: GPS or
VLOC. The automatic switch from GPS to VLOC should
occur within the area of the shaded box.
The automatic switch from GPS to VLOC occurs
gradually to prevent abrupt CDI changes when coupled
to an autopilot. The CDI selection can also be changed
manually by pressing the CDI Key. Once the switch
from GPS to VLOC has occurred, either automatically or
manually, it does not automatically switch again until the
approach is reactivated or another approach is selected.
To prevent automatic ILS CDI selection, choose the
‘Manual’ ILS CDI setting, as described in Section 10.4
‘CDI Scale/Alarms’. (The factory default setting is ‘Auto’,
which enables the automatic switch to VLOC.)
Alexis there are clear parameters for when the autoswitching takes place. You are either within those or not. I am travelling so don’t have them to hand.
Every time I find it doesn’t switch, I initially blame the system then realise it was my fault.
often when vectored the switch criteria are not met.
Looking at the diagram, if you get vectored to the LOC within 2nm of the FAF, it won’t switch over, but if that happens you are going to be very poorly placed to sort it out, with just 2nm to the GS intercept and with the plane going off on some tangent.
I’ve had a fair number of these (vectored too tight) and it’s OK if you have done the manual selection beforehand, which is my only option anyway
I cannot see the point of automatic switching, because clearly you need to make sure it has switched to flying the ILS using the ILS receiver, so you have to sit there watching it to make sure it does it, but while you are watching it you may as well switch it over manually. Nearly always one is (or can easily be) flying in HDG mode, so you can select the ILS as far back as you want.
I think stuff like this auto switching is just pointless automation on which the pilot workload saving does not exceed the pilot monitoring workload (to make sure it has switched).
The pilot flying any IFR procedure can use the autopilot for everything possible (and most do, including myself) but he/she needs to have the situational awareness in which the manual switchover point is completely obvious.
Hey Krister, while I don’t know about YOUR CJ I know that my friend is a 20 year Lufthansa Captain who flies all Citation Jet models regularly. If he tells me that it sometimes doesn’t work in the one he flies, then what is there to discuss? And what’s the reason to call it “B.S.” what other people experience? Or do you maybe know each single CJ im the whole fleet?
That would impressive! Wow!
