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Training

G1000 Training: Garmins PC Sim Excels

Garmins G1000 electronic flight display has so dominated the market that its spun off its own cottage industry of products meant to teach people how to use it. And believe us, given the G1000s complexity, the need is hardly overstated. Indeed, some flight schools charge several thousand dollars just to check out pilots transitioning into the G1000, and thats after theyve done computer-based orientation. The idea behind the training products is to give the would-be G1000 pilot the lay of the land before actually getting into the airplane. All of them-there are about a half dozen-do that to varying degrees at varying price points, each driven by a particular training doctrine. Depending on how you learn, there's a product for every purpose.

Paul Bertorelli
Verified

Garmins G1000 electronic flight display has so dominated the market that its spun off its own cottage industry of products meant to teach people how to use it. And believe us, given the G1000s complexity, the need is hardly overstated. Indeed, some flight schools charge several thousand dollars just to check out pilots transitioning into the G1000, and thats after theyve done computer-based orientation. The idea behind the training products is to give the would-be G1000 pilot the lay of the land before actually getting into the airplane. All of them-there

are about a half dozen-do that to varying degrees at varying price points, each driven by a particular training doctrine. Depending on how you learn, there’s a product for every purpose.

Expanded Market

We found seven G1000 training products of various kinds, a modest market expansion since we last examined these products five years ago. All of them are computer based in some way, either with programs you install on your own machine, DVDs or online access. There’s also a book on the subject, Max Trescotts G1000 Glass Cockpit, which can also have a CD-ROM companion course, which we took a quick look at. Heres a summary of the products we tried.

ASA G1000 Course

At $49.95, this course is the least expensive of the structured courses.. By “structured,” we mean its composed of learning segments with a specific syllabus defined by the G1000s taxonomy, not types of operations. It will run on a Mac or PC directly off the CD, with no need for PC emulation on the Mac, a plus.

Its a minimalist approach to multi-media training, using a slide show format with the option of listening to a narrator or reading the text directly off the page. The course has 14 sections, which you can navigate in any order and revisit as necessary. As the narration proceeds, a static view of the G1000 is highlighted with the topic being discussed, but the images don’t animate much. You can search the program to find topics or answer questions. At the end of each section, a short quiz tests your knowledge of the just-covered subject matter, but there’s no onscreen simulator to practice with.

Garmin

Garmin has added a new training product since our last review, the online-based

Paul Bertorelli

Paul Bertorelli is Aviation Consumer’s Editor at Large. In addition to his valued contributions to Aviation Consumer, his in-depth video productions on sister publication AVweb cover a wide variety of topics that greatly contribute to safety, operation and aircraft ownership. When Paul isn’t writing or filming, he’s out flying his J3 Cub.