Sport Pilot Talk

My flight school recently picked up a new plane that has all digital electronic display of primary flight instruments. I was flying with steam gauge instruments. Start flying the new plane on Tuesday. This should be interesting.

Are there pros / cons to these displays?

The one time I flew in the school's Skycatcher which has an EFIS, I did not find it difficult to adjust to considering I was also flying it "under the hood". Keep in mind I had 60+ hours at that point in my own plane which only has steam gauges. I liked it.

It shouldn't be a problem, just don't spend to much time staring at the display. The display will have way more information shown than what you normally need. It is a pretty easy transition, I think it is easier than going the other way.

Ok thanks guys. Just a little intimidating to look at.

It’s almost certainly due to the “Law of Primacy”, but I find I can find and interpret most data more quickly from steam gauges than glass.

For example:



At a quick glance I can easily tell my airspeed and altitude from the steam gauges. So much so I virtually never use the airspeed and altimeter displays on the little Dynon, other than its TAS display.

But a larger glass display, as I had in my Cirrus, does help. And someone learning glass from the beginning is unlikely to be burdened by my prejudices.

If you know the manufacturer of the avionics, you might want to check out their website for a simulator. That helped me when a friend put a Garmin GPS in his Cessna I fly occasionally.

It is a Evektor Harmony.

This plane I think :
N163PH 2018 Evektor Sportstar SL

Choose your sunglasses wisely. Some, notably polarized, can cause the display to "disappear". I always used gradient gray tint with the Garmin 300. Seemed to work the best.

It's 6 of one and half-dozen of the other.

sportflugzeug wrote:It is a Evektor Harmony.

Evektor offers both Dynon and Garmin. So you'd have to ask the FBO which setup is in the plane.

HAPPYDAN wrote:Choose your sunglasses wisely. Some, notably polarized, can cause the display to "disappear". I always used gradient gray tint with the Garmin 300. Seemed to work the best.

I think pilots should always use non-polarized sunglasses.

HAPPYDAN wrote:Choose your sunglasses wisely. Some, notably polarized, can cause the display to "disappear". I always used gradient gray tint with the Garmin 300. Seemed to work the best.

Most airlines discourage their pilot's from using polarized lenses.

Allow me to shamelessly plug my own EAA webinar: "Gauges to Glass - transitioning to 21st Century avionics". Online at
http://www.eaavideo.org/detail/video/5506222259001

HAPPYDAN wrote:Choose your sunglasses wisely. Some, notably polarized, can cause the display to "disappear". I always used gradient gray tint with the Garmin 300. Seemed to work the best.

100% correct with the Dynon legacy glass. I wear eye glasses 24/7. The polarized clip on’s I have make many LCD screens unreadable. Sometime my iPhone is hard to read and even the display the gas pumps can unreadable. Turn you head sideways and you can read them but you’ll get strange looks.