Plastic Pilot

This is the time before the next flight I planned in a light aircraft. This will be the longer interruption in my flying activities ever. Before starting training for my IFR, I went through a shorter non-flying period, to put enough money aside.
We have been living in Frankfurt area for one month now, and thing […]

The G1000 glass cockpit is good looking. It’s cool, and it’s certainly the leading edge in nowadays avionics for light aircrafts. But it is really a step forward ? Does it improve the safety of our flying ? It’s probably too early to answer, but here are some personal opinions…
I’m convinced that simpler equipments are […]

Once again, Garmin announced a spectacular improvement to its already spectacular G1000 integrated avionics suite: synthetic vision ! This new enhancement uses a terrain and obstacles database to display a 3D representation of what the pilot would see if he looked outside.
This will greatly improve situational awareness, particularly in marginal VFR conditions. If everything is […]

(Because of technical problems, I had to re-publish this post several times. I do apologize for any inconvenience, particularly to those of you reading this blog per e-mail or RSS feed.)
Pilots do mistakes - cockpits don’t… but they sometimes help. Designing a clear and clean cockpit layout is not an easy task, and light aircrafts […]

Bombardier released the info yesterday: the next Learjet model (code-name Learjet 85) will be fully built with composite. In my very personal vocabulary, it will be a plastic plane !
Thanks to the use of composite, the plane will be lighter, and generate less drag, both factors leading to increased range. This is a perfect example […]

One of the principles of modern aviation design is to re-use standard components where possible, including in computers, networks, and so on.
The new Boeing 787 will offer ethernet connections to the passengers. How good is that ? Internet access for anybody. But FAA expressed a concern, because the 787 will also use ethernet for controls, […]

This post addresses a topic that is more IFR oriented, but can also affect VFR pilots using radionavigation.
As all IFR navigation is based on radar vectors or radionavigation, it is of paramount importance to properly tune the nav receivers, and the corresponding indicators.
The routine I used on planes with classical intrumentation was:
Nav 1 - Frequency […]

Here again, what I can tell is how I made it, which worked quite well, but there is no absolute / universal way to manage this transition, which is not obvious as it could seem.
One first advice is that if possible, you should to your G1000 transition on a plane type you already know, so […]

When I started my G1000 training, which comprised both theory and practice, the first question was “Are you current with the GNS430 ?”. Yes was definetly the answer. I had extensive training and knowledge of the 430, on which my instructor insited a lot.
The G1000 trainer then said that I would have trouble with the […]

Apart from plastic body (still no news about the gelcoat problem…) and plastic engine, the bigger change recently is certainly the plastic instruments - a.k.a glass cockpits.
This change has been made in steps, from years now, but the revolution is now complete.
One of the first step was probably electronic HSI like sandel tubes, which presented […]