In article . com,
wrote:

Our CAP unit is going to be receiving a new C-182 with a glass
cockpit.
In order to give us a taste of it a Cirrus owner came to our CAP
meeting and showed us his wonderful aircraft (not the same PDF/MFD but
close). I've heard from many sources that it takes about 10 hours to
transition. In fact a local FBO has a brand new C-182 (rents for about
$200/hr) and requires 15 hours. Although I didn't fly the Cirrus, I
sat
in the aircraft while the owner spoke with someone else. He said we
could push any buttons we wanted to. So, I tried to think of all the
things I could normally do on an IFR flight. Amazingly, I had no
problems with any of the operations. The display is easy for me
because
my generation grew up flying flight simulators that use the exact same
display. The only hard part is figuring out the 430s (which I've done
before). So, I'm wondering if all this talk about a long transition
time is mostly for the generation that didn't grow up with computers.
Just thinking about the time it takes some people (not necessarily
based on age) to get familiar with their computer vs. others, I'm
wondering if its the same thing. Perhaps I'm being naive but I felt
that I could fly behind that panel today.

Has anyone on this list had experience with such a transition?
-Sammy J.


I'm a relatively old geezer and I had no trouble at all with getting
signed off at our club for the G1000 C172 after about an hour's flying
for VFR (ok, the bloody fam sheet / test thing paperwork that had to be
filled out before signoff took forever, but that's just looking things
up in the POH and trying not to die of boredom while doing so...).

IFR was a bit longer, but only because you really want to be damn sure
you know at least the basics of how to reset the GPS and start again
(urgh! don't get me started...), and because, well, it's IFR and you
want to be familliar with at least the basics (partial panel is
interesting on a G1000 172). As others have commented the vertical tape
airspeed and altimeter displays can be a little unfamiliar at first, but
really, 10 hours seems an awful long time to transition even for IFR
and a 182, especially if you already have Garmin GPS 430 or 530
experience.

Hamish