Pilots Can Learn G1000 On A Laptop

If a new Garmin G1000 cockpit is on your holiday shopping list — or even if you just wish it were — now you can start learning all the details about how to use it before you get into the air, using a CD-ROM course on your home computer. King Schools this week released a new interactive four-hour program, “Cleared for Flying the Garmin G1000.” After finishing the course, pilots will not only understand and be able to use the enormous capabilities of the glass cockpit G1000, but they’ll also know the quickest and most efficient way to do things and how to avoid the “gotchas” that can lie in wait for the unprepared, said Martha King. The course covers VFR and IFR operations, navigation, communications, loading and activating instrument approaches, departure and arrival procedures, systems, what to do when things go wrong, and best operating procedures. Interactive questions follow each lesson. Students can operate a simulated G1000 on their computer to practice using the system as they will in the airplane, King says. The price is $249.