Trip to a Big Airport, and more G1000 moments

A couple of weeks back, my flybuddy Milen and I took a trip after work down to Portland for dinner. The weather has been beautiful, with nothing but clear blue skies pretty much everywhere in the Western states. Although it was a bit warm, it was still a perfect evening to fly. We took the G1000 equipped Cessna 182, which I got checked out a couple of weeks before. Milen would fly the trip down to Portland, and I would fly back (Milen's single engine night currency ran out a few days before).

I always wondered what it'd be like coming into a big airport - meaning one served by big jets. Will we get squeezed in for an approach? Will they ask us to keep the speed up on final because a 737 was right on our tail? What about wake turbulence because we could get sequenced in between two 737's, or maybe a 757, which is infamous for the wake it produces? Well, none of that happened. It was as simple as "Cessna 716LR, enter right downwind, runway 28R, cleared to land." The only reminder that we were flying into a big international airport was that there was jet traffic landing on the parallel runway. That traffic actually provided the first, and so far only, experience with the traffic feature on the G1000. Right as Milen turned base-to-final, the system announced "Traffic", and the jet's position and relative altitude was highlited on the MFD. (Sadly, around Seattle, even though the traffic feature is supposed to work because we supposedly have appropriate radar coverage, all I ever see on the display is "Traffic Unavailable.")

The FBO at PDX is FlightCraft, and these folks couldn't be nicer. They give a free ride to/from the excellent Tri-Met light rail system, and 20 minutes later, you're downtown. They even waived the usual $10 or so handling charge - and we didn't buy any fuel, either.

The return trip was flown IFR, since it was night time - and I wanted some practice with the G1000 button pushing in the IFR system. Surprise, surprise... In the left seat, I was a bit rusty on the buttons, and it's only been two weeks since my last flight! I had the flight plan already put in, but Portland Clearance blessed me with a different routing. So, there I was, sitting on the ramp, reprogramming our flight plan. Forever I couldn't make sense of the comments that others have made about the G1000 system not understanding airways. But, I immediately understood why these comments were right on the money: when you're given "716LR is cleared to Paine Airport via the Portland Five Departure, vectors to Battle Ground, V287 Paine", and when it's night time - so you have to juggle the chart, flashlight, and the GPS buttons - it sure would be helpful to enter that clearance into the navigator and have it figure out that from Battle Ground VOR (BTG) to Paine VOR (PAE) via V287 it's actually BTG-OLM-ARPEE-PAE. Nevertheless, I got the route figured out and put into the GPS. But I still wished for at least two things: (1) for the G1000 to be airways-aware, because not everything is "direct to", and (2) for the Cessna 182 to have some glareshield lights so that I wouldn't have to fumble around with the flashlight while trying to reprogram a GPS.

In any case, prior to departure, Milen suggested, rightfully so, that I should probably put in the BTG VOR just in case ATC had me intercept V287 prior to BTG for some odd reason (V287 extends past BTG and goes down thru Oregon). We did that, and we switched the HSI pointer to be driven off the #1 VOR.

As you probably suspect, I'm setting up for a "I learned about the G1000 from that" moment. And here it comes: after takeoff, ATC issued an instruction to proceed direct to Battle Ground. What do I do? Well, I get confused! I'm thinking: the green arrow thingy is the RMI pointer to BTG, so I'll just turn to where it points. Of course, that's completely wrong. The green arrow thingy is the course pointer on the HSI! And, since it was set to something like a 040 heading, it actually made me believe that BTG was in that direction. Ouch. Fortunately, Milen pointed out the error by looking at the huge MFD moving map right in front of him.

I asked myself: was any of this due to the G1000? My answer was, unfortunately, "yes". In a "normal" airplane, I'd tune in the VOR, and when I'm told to go directly to it, I'd center the CDI with a "to" indication, and turn to the appropriate heading. No need to figure out what the pointer means - because there's only one needle, and that's on the CDI. One might notice that often the #1 CDI is coupled either to the NAV1 radio or to the GPS, and that there is a separate NAV/GPS switch that controls the coupling... Yes, you could make the mistake of not pushing that switch. But, if the coupling is to the GPS (in leg mode), the needle won't move no matter how much twisting of the OBS knob is done. That's a pretty obvious mistake to spot, and if I ever see that happen, I've got enough experience to tell immediately that it must be the NAV/GPS switch that is not set correctly.

So now, the error is figured out. How do we go direct BTG? Hmm, center the CDI needle. Uh, how do I do that? Where's that knob for changing the HSI course? I realized suddenly that I haven't really done much flying the "old fashioned" way with the G1000 system... Everything was off the GPS, with strong reliance on the "direct to" button. Uh-oh. I ended up switching the CDI source to GPS, punched in direct BTG, and off we went. It all happened rather quickly, and I doubt that anyone in the radar room even noticed that something was amiss.

Which brings us to the conclusion: the only "old fashioned" flying on the G1000 that I ever did was a VOR approach. That wasn't enough. Fortunately I realized this omission early on, in visual conditions, with a more experienced G1000 pilot on board.

Speaking of the G1000: John over on AviationMentor has some excellent tips for flying with this wonderful new system. Check out his blog!