Well, until I fly a fully integrated electronic cockpit, I'll reserve my
judgement of value. But I'm hoping and thinking that a fully integrated set
of avionics and instrumentation has real value beyond that of the piece
parts.

We can continue to fly 50s vintage equipment with a handheld GPS unit and
complain about how slowly small plane aviation technology advances. I want
to jump on the horse. The Skylane is halfway there. The Cirrus and the
'other one' seem to be the first 21st century light a/c. I think I'm going
to like it a lot and I'd hate to buy the last new steam guage Skylane too.

"Richard Hertz" wrote in message
news
That is perceived value - in the end, there is no real added value - I get
the same from my handheld.


"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
link.net...
Cessna sold out an entire years 182 and 206 production in one hour
following
the announcement that they would have the G1000. That tells me that
people
desire glass cockpits. You should also know that the glass cockpits are
cheaper than the analog gauges that they replace. I would hate to be
the
guy who bought the last non-glass 182.

Mike
MU-2





"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
"Mike Rapoport" wrote:
I believe that the reason that airplanes have appreciated is that
the older ones have been, for all practical purposes, equal to the
new ones. With the advent of the glass cockpit, his is no
longer true.

I don't agree that the glass cockpits add a tremendous amount of real
value over old instruments combined with an MFD. Consider the
experience of Cirrus Designs, which believed, naively, it turned out,
that glass cockpits would make their airplanes notably safer than
older
designs. The only thing I find really exciting about the new designs
is
the electronic AHRS which finally supplants the old pneumatic gyros.

Sheer pizzazz is selling new glass cockpit airplanes now, but when
they
get old enough for the used market, it's uncertain that they will
command a large premium. Will prices of used 2003 Skylanes be
depressed
$50K vs. 2004 ones? It's hard for me to picture myself paying that
kind
of premium for just the pretty boxes.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)