G1000 Check out

Well now I know why it is called the G1000 because that is how much it
costs to get checked out in one.

This afternoon I finished my checkout in a G1000 equipped Diamond Star (
180 HP four place). That was my excitement for New Years Eve. After
finishing this posting I will be headed to bed.....

I attended a two hour ground session on the G1000 and associated KAP140
Auto Pilot, then scheduled the necessary flights. I must say the G1000
is a joy to fly and the KAP 140 is a pain in the ass.
Situational awareness is awesome. One problem, too much head in the
cockpit. There is a lot to look at and comprehend. Very different from
flying steam gauges.

My first problem flying the airplane was the airspeed tape. It was
counter intuitive. The Altitude tape is intuitive. Raise the nose to get
higher on the scale and lower the nose to get lower on the scale.
The airspeed tape you need to lower the nose to get to a higher
indication on the tape and raise the nose to get a lower indication on
the tape. Yeah I know raising the nose to slow down and lowering it to
speed up is basic. However when your are looking at the tape it is not.
Setting up flight plans and approaches is strait out of the 430/530.

Once set up in cruise you can play with all the other toys. XM weather
and radio, all the info available about the destination airport or any
other one you choose. The destination one is automatic.
Auto Ident on nav frequencies. TIS, Terrain warning, Topo, airways it is
all there and much more.

The Auto-pilot is another story.
The HDG,NAV and APR button work as one would expect. However altitude
navigation is confusing. I am still not sure i have it all figured out.
The ALT button toggles between alt hold and Vertical speed modes but not
all the time.
The auto-pilot seems like it is on but is really in standby mode. It
should indicate it is in standby mode but it does not. I started pushing
buttons and nothing happened.
Several times during our approach into Charlottesville,VA the autopilot
kicked off line. Too much trim operation. We were getting tossed around
a bit and it was working hard. i left it offline the last time and hand
flew the rest of the approach. This was my first time flying a coupled
approach.

A few more flights with someone to look for traffic and cumulus granitus
and I should be all set. Anyone want to be scared to death and ride shotgun?
Michelle