Pilots who have experience working with a variety of computer applications or prior experience with GPS units seem to have less trouble with the glass cockpit's button pushing and knob twisting. If you have eschewed computers and most things technical, you're going to have a steeper learning curve in a glass cockpit. But even if you are adept at pushing buttons and turning knobs, scanning and interpreting a glass panel can still be tough to learn.
Regardless of whether your aircraft has steam-gauges or glass, flying by reference to instruments involves the same steps.
Scan the instruments and cross-reference the indications.
Interpret the instrument indications.
Control the aircraft based on the instrument indications.
Here's a steam gauge panel with the standard six pack layout and one of several suggested scan patterns.
When flying a glass panel, the airspeed, attitude, altitude, and vertical speed are basically in the same locations as a steam gauge six pack: Airspeed in the left, attitude in the top center, heading in the bottom center, altitude on the right, vertical speed also on the right.
The power instruments (tachometer & manifold pressure) are usually not shown on the primary flight display (PFD), but on the multi-function display (MFD) to the right of the PFD. And the familiar turn coordinator is missing. Slip/skid information is shown as a two-piece triangle in the pointer at the top of the attitude indicator. Rate of turn is shown on the heading indicator as a magenta trend bar. This is unfortunate because while rate of turn and coordination are next to each other in a conventional turn coordinator, they are separated by quite a bit of space in a G1000 PFD. I think it's the lack of a separate turn coordinator is what throws many experienced pilots, and for good reason.
To my mind, the glass cockpit can be initially harder to fly and will remain hard to fly unless you fly it regularly for a while. First of all, many older GA planes have attitude indicators that are just plain crude. The old style steam gauge attitude indicators (AI) may show a slight turn when the turn coordinator is showing wings level. They also have a tendency to give slightly inaccurate readings when rolling out of a turn or when leveling out from a climb or descent. So it's understandable that pilots (perhaps unconsciously) do not completely trust the AI and learn to cross-reference the AI indications with the altimeter and turn coordinator.
The second reason that glass panels are harder to fly stems from the unreliability of vacuum-driven gyro instruments and vacuum pumps and the way pilots are trained to fly in steam gauge aircraft. Since the gyro instruments and vacuum pumps aren't terribly reliable, the FAA requires instrument rating candidates to show proficiency flying partial panel - with the heading indicator and AI covered up. Many instrument instructors, myself included, begin to cover up the AI early in a pilot's instrument training so they are forced to rely on the turn coordinator and altimeter to keep the aircraft straight and level. So here's what many pilots unconsciously see when they fly a steam gauge panel in instrument flight. Okay, maybe most pilots still look at the heading indicator, but you get my drift.
The FAA describes two basic methods of instrument flying: Primary/Supporting and Control/Performance. The primary/supporting approach is the one most often taught in small aircraft, for reasons I'll discuss below. The primary/supporting approach teaches you that in any given flight regime there is just one primary instrument each for pitch, bank, and power. And guess what? Most of time, the attitude indicator is not a primary instrument for pitch or bank. The only time the attitude indicator is a primary instrument is when establishing a climb, a descent, or a turn.
The Control/Performance approach was historically seldom taught in small aircraft because, quoting the FAA's Instrument Flying Handbook, it requires instruments that "... display immediate attitude and power indications and are calibrated to permit attitude and power adjustments in precise amounts" The crappy vacuum instruments in most older GA aircraft just don't meet these requirements, but the sensitive AHARS (attitude, heading, and reference system) in glass panel aircraft most certainly do fit the bill.
Pilots with significant steam gauge experience often try to fly a glass cockpit by responding to changes in the various tape displays, but these number displays (airspeed, altitude, vertical speed) tend to fluctuate regardless of how smoothly you fly. Trying to pay attention to the endless stream of numbers is like trying to follow the plot of a movie with a chatty friend babbling endlessly in your ear.
So if the constantly changing numbers on the various tape displays, the dazzling array of colors, are a distraction, how are you supposed to fly a glass panel aircraft? I'll talk about some glass panel flying strategies in the next installment.
