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 his piston-powered airplane from conventional mechanical flight instruments to electronic "glass" instruments, primarily to eliminate the vacuum system, leverage advanced situational awareness and automation, and improve overall reliability.
Key objectives for the upgrade include integrating new capabilities like an air data computer, attitude/heading sensors, and GPS steering (GPSS) with the airplane's existing IFR GPS, ADS-B, and autopilot.
The decision involves significant financial cost and operational changes, with crucial considerations for ensuring robust redundancy and backup power to mitigate the risks of an all-electric instrument system failure.

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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.