On Jan 24, 8:14*am, Gezellig wrote:
In the past few years, one (supposedly) successful flight training
school dumped their Cessna fleet for Diamonds.

http://www.eaa-fly.com/Training/Training.html

I believe they do not have any aircraft that with standard
instrumentation. Regardless, the conversation turns quickly to
"Is this a good way to go about training for your PPL?"

Since most rentals, especially lower priced ones, are Cessna 15x/17x,
the transition (backwards so to speak) would appear to be an issue. My
expectation is that the majority of newbies to flying look forward to
curbing not inflating costs and that they will need to be Cessna (std
gauging) prepared not glass panel prepared..

Comments appreciated.

We just added a glass 172 to the fleet. There's a learning
curve for us older guys but the young will get it easily. The airplane
still flies like a 172, the PFD is no harder to read than the steam
gauges after a few minutes, and anyone with a few hours solo in a 172
could fly it safely. The bigger learning involves the multiple pages
and functions of the MFD and the procedures taken if an electrical
problem arises. Most 172s have one electrical bus, maybe two if it has
an avionics master. The glass airplane has SIX buses and you need to
know their management.
There was a similar steam-gauge versus digital argument when
digital watches and clocks and calculators came out. Expensive they
were, but actually cheaper to build since much of the assembly is
easily automated as opposed to the old units with tiny gears and
levers and sensitive and fragile bits, just like an airplane's
instruments. Whether we like it or not, glass is going to become the
norm on newer airplanes, not just because of its capabilities nor its
selling power, but because it's cheaper to make. And many older
aircraft will get retrofitted once the competition builds and the
glass makers have to take less profit and find new markets.
So find a school with glass and get with it. Or fool with a
simulator that has it.

Dan