The first “glass” cockpit airplane that I flew was a Falcon 10 or 100, well over 20 years ago. At that time the nomenclature was EFIS (for electronic flight instrumentation system), the equipment was from Collins radio and basically it replicated the mechanical flight instruments. I recall that the depiction was not particularly crisp and I thought it caused some eyestrain. When the Beech Starship came along it had a whole kit of cathode ray tubes, 16 in all, that took over most of the information display in the airplane. Then came the flat-panel displays with superior and crisp graphics. These took over all informational chores and came first to turbine airplanes. Now they have come to virtually all new general aviation airplanes, from both Garmin and Avidyne, and basic glass instrumentation systems will soon be available for the retrofit market.
One thing has changed with all this. Even with the first EFIS systems, as I flew in that Falcon years ago, we still placed the emphasis on flying the airplane. Now, with fully integrated systems, the emphasis is on operating the airplane through the systems. When getting checked out in a new glass cockpit airplane, the flying basics remain but there is more, a lot more, to learn if the systems are to be operated completely and intuitively. A pilot can truly be a lost ball in high grass if he doesn’t know all about everything that is hidden behind the knobs and buttons and what everything on the screen means.
