Michael makes some good points. My philosophy is to log what is
necessary to be legal, and train what is necessary to be safe.

In light of that, the current state of affairs, for me, and many
careful pilots, is probably sufficient. But for some, particuarly those
who rent (but just how many renters are there that fly IMC?), there may
be an attempt to cut corners.

Right now, I think the issue is of most concern to instructors. How is
an instructor who is not trained in the instruments supposed to
instruct someone in a glass cockpit airplane? Now if the FBO has one on
the line, they can learn it, but who will pay for the time? Let us hope
that inexpensive flight simulators will have these as options on their
panels, as this is something that can be learned on a sim (and right
now, a non-certified sim would be just fine).

My airplane has an IFR GPS and an autopilot. None of my instructors
taught me anything about either (I taught them!). To learn it, I just
read the manual inside and out, and went out and flew long VFR
crosscountries and tried out every button, every option, every
combination. After about 10 hours, I was initially comptetent. After
100 hours I was approaching expert status, and after 200 hours I had
the thing cold inside and out. But it would have been a lot fewer hours
if I had a sim or an actual training program that hit the training
issues in an exhaustive way. (Demonstrate EACH funtion of the unit,
then have th student do it until comptetency is obtained). The IFR GPS
must have 10 factorial different combinations. And then there are the
failure modes to consider. Probably is an exaggeration, but there
really are a lot.

The manufacturers of these glass panels need to code up some realistic
sims like the Garmin sim for the 430 so these panels can be learned
without having to fly the plane. Then the instructors need to to learn
them. Then the students need to lean them. Right now the training is
inside out. The student owning the airplane knows more than the
instructor. Why? Because he has used it.

Modern training environment should include a sim with all the
instruments found in the actual airplane. Just like the airlines do it.
With inexpensive computers available and manufacturers providing the
software, it's not really a pipe dream. But it's going to be a painful
experience for a lot of instructors and DE's.

I think the glass panels are LESS complicated than the IFR GPS's. But
unlike the IFR GPS's, they can't be ignored.