Real Life Flying Florida

[Oliver]

Took the Cessna 172 for a flight to dinner from KSRQ to KSPG last night. Got some wonderful views of the sunset and the Sunshine Skyway bridge in Tampa. Be sure to watch in HD!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2014 by Oliver

[eaglewing7]

Funny how the first thing I noticed, was that the heat/defrost vents were closed or restricted.  

 

Never see that up here, always open, and ready to go.  Then again, we probably only have some use for them six months out of the year.

 

Looks like a great flight.  I have a question for you though, how much of a distraction do you find the G1000 to be when flying VFR, and especially at night?  Seems to me that it probably does draw attention away from the visual aspect of flying, and you may end up with your head inside too much?

[Oliver]

Funny how the first thing I noticed, was that the heat/defrost vents were closed or restricted.  

 

Never see that up here, always open, and ready to go.  Then again, we probably only have some use for them six months out of the year.

 

Looks like a great flight.  I have a question for you though, how much of a distraction do you find the G1000 to be when flying VFR, and especially at night?  Seems to me that it probably does draw attention away from the visual aspect of flying, and you may end up with your head inside too much?

Honestly the G1000 can be very distracting at night. The problem is that the brightness knob is extremely sensitive in a certain area and it's really tough to get the right brightness. I think it's more of a habit of using it at night. 

[dwayne299]

Nice flying bro!

[Oliver]

Nice flying bro!

Thanks man!

[eaglewing7]

Honestly the G1000 can be very distracting at night. The problem is that the brightness knob is extremely sensitive in a certain area and it's really tough to get the right brightness. I think it's more of a habit of using it at night. 

 

That would certainly be a problem.  Which makes me wonder why Garmin did not go with auto dimming, like on the GNS430/530, etc.  It always worked quite well in my opinion, and if you needed it brighter momentarily, just shine a light on the photocell and it brightened up...

 

VFR at night, could be a problem in some areas then for sure, but in sparsely populated areas, it may actually help.  Of course, my other concern would be an electrical failure, good luck flying with the backup artificial horizon, hidden down by your knees.  

 

With regards to another piece of "glass", I've flown a Seneca III with an Aspen panel, and it was quite nice, because it is compact, so it doesn't take up the whole panel, and has a ton of information based on how you layer it in, but I've never used it at night, which makes me wonder how they act at night?  Any idea?

[Oliver]

That would certainly be a problem.  Which makes me wonder why Garmin did not go with auto dimming, like on the GNS430/530, etc.  It always worked quite well in my opinion, and if you needed it brighter momentarily, just shine a light on the photocell and it brightened up...

 

VFR at night, could be a problem in some areas then for sure, but in sparsely populated areas, it may actually help.  Of course, my other concern would be an electrical failure, good luck flying with the backup artificial horizon, hidden down by your knees.  

 

With regards to another piece of "glass", I've flown a Seneca III with an Aspen panel, and it was quite nice, because it is compact, so it doesn't take up the whole panel, and has a ton of information based on how you layer it in, but I've never used it at night, which makes me wonder how they act at night?  Any idea?

I actually hate the G1000 at night in VFR when I'm over sparsely populated areas. It makes it nearly impossible to get a good spatial orientation when you even glance outside. The G1000 at night is fine when you're flying over well lit areas. 

I've never flown any acf with an Aspen panel so I unfortunately couldn't be of much help in that area. 

[Steve]

Nice flight!!