Going Glass, Part 1

Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 09:20 AM ET

Verified

My airplane's flight instruments are shown. I definitely want to eliminate the A1 and DG, which means the vacuum gauge in the upper left can go, too. The fate of the other instruments will depend on the package of new equipment I end up choosing and has it's installed.

Key Takeaways:

The author plans to upgrade their personal airplane from a conventional mechanical "six-pack" instrument panel to electronic "glass" flight instruments.
Key objectives for this modernization include eliminating the vacuum system, leveraging advanced situational awareness and automation, improving reliability, and adding features like an air data computer and GPSS.
The upgrade involves critical considerations such as ensuring sufficient redundancy for electrical or equipment failures, integrating new systems with existing avionics, managing the financial cost, and adapting to new operational procedures through training.

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Editor’s Note: This is the first in an occasional series of articles exploring the details and considerations of replacing conventional mechanical flight instruments with their electronic counterparts aboard a typical piston-powered personal airplane. While the series will necessarily involve comparing products, it also will evaluate the implications for operations and safety.

My personal airplane is a prime candidate for an upgrade to microprocessor-based flight instruments. It’s on all the Approved Model List Supplemental Type Certificate (AML-STC) lists for the various realistic options, and it has IFR-approved WAAS GPS navigation capabilities, with ADS-B Out and In. It also has a popular two-axis autopilot, which can be made to interface with just about anything.