G1000 Transition, Part 2

It was perfect VFR weather for my first IFR flight in a G1000 airplane, so I went under the hood. The plan was to fly from Paine Field down to Shelton (ah, that precious cross-country time), then to Tacoma Narrows, and then back to Paine. Originally this was scheduled for a Saturday, but I ended up doing it one evening after work, as I didn't remember that promised to take some folks to Friday Harbor that Saturday... Anyway, after 10 minutes on the G1000 simulator to show that I remember how to enter flight plans into the GPS, it was off to the airplane! My turn to do the button pushing, this time in an IFR environment (I did a basic VFR maneuvers flight in the airplane the week before).

It took what seemed like forever to put in the flight plans in the runup area. I put all 3 in, as opposed to putting in the one for Paine-Shelton and then putting in the rest while in flight (although that did result in some added time on the engine = more $$$ spent). I figured I should learn all the buttons and stuff on the ground, so I could concentrate exclusively on the MFD. Looking back at how long it took me to put in the flight plans, that was definitely the right choice!

Straight-and-level flight was no problem. I heard that it's hard to maintain altitude on the G1000, but if you just set the altitude bug, it's much easier: you watch the bug move instead of watching the numbers change. On the other hand, climbs and descents were sloppy at first - especially descents. For some reason, I just had a hard time maintaining a 500 foot-per-minute descent into Shelton. Maybe it was the C182, maybe it was the Garmin, or maybe it was just me... In any case, I did learn some first important lessons on the leg to Shelton. (1) Even if you set the altitude bug, write down what altitude you were cleared to. It's far too easy to move the bug by mistake, and if you do it in a climb or descent, then you invariantly ask yourself "uh, was that 3,000 or 4,000 feet that I was cleared for?" (2) As a corollary to #1, look at which button you're pushing or which knob you're twisting before you push/twist it!! (3) Lesson #2 goes double for buttons that have an inner and outer knob... I found myself changing the barometric pressure when I intended to change the course on the HSI. Oops!

Approaches themselves are a piece of cake if you've flown any GPS approach before. The G1000 makes everything so easy with the big moving map on the right, and a mini moving map right on your PFD.

On the leg from Shelton to Tacoma Narrows, we tried out the autopilot. In this installation it's the Bendix/King KAP140 system, and I can finally say that I think I got this autopilot, at least for enroute operations. It seems like the autopilot gets skipped on a lot of aircraft checkouts, and it shouldn't be that way. At Tacoma, it was another GPS approach, followed by a missed and vectors back to Paine Field.

We terminated the lesson with an ILS 16R approach into Paine. Surprise there? Of course. We forgot to "activate" the approach in the GPS, and although strictly speaking it's not required, it does make it easier to shoot the missed, since in this case, the missed procedure calls for intercepting a bearing to the locator outer marker. We ended up following the moving map instead. If we had to shoot the missed, we could always have put in the identifier for the LOM manually into the GPS and then switched it to OBS mode to intercept the required bearing to the NDB. But, if you do it "right" by loading and activating the approach first, it's much easier.

The next flight was local approaches into Paine Field. We did the VOR 16R full procedure, VOR 16R from a DME arc, and then an ILS. This flight went much better than the flight to Shelton and Tacoma. For some reason, I seem to have gotten how to make steady rate climbs and descents in this airplane. The scan was noticeably better, too. BTW, flying a DME arc with the G1000 couldn't get any easier. Not only does the CDI needle move to indicate where you need to go (just keep the needle in the center, and you'll fly a perfect arc) - but if you get a bit off course, the G1000 suggests a heading to get back on track!! So much for the old "turn 10, twist 10" technique that I learned when I got my instrument rating.

So, after about 3.5 hours in the airplane, I was checked out in the G1000. Am I going to take it into the soup? Maybe, with a more qualified pilot. But for now, I'm going to get some hood time to get more comfortable with the buttons! :-)