Have you used commercial FMS and EFIS systems? Garmin and Avidyne are made for weekend warriors and doctors, that is their main market. They are specifically designed to be simple for the end user. When you start talking about Glass Cockpits in reference to integrated EFIS/FMS/Autopilot systems, things get more complicated. These are systems that are designed to have certain capabilities, but not necessarily to be easy to learn. I would imagine that when an airline sees this kind of experience on a resume, it is not just valuable because they know the candidate can follow a magenta line, but that there is an inherent avionics system knowledge and understanding of buttonology commonly used in these systems. I have been asked in interviews not just what kind of FMS I had experience on, but particularly what revision of FMS software.Shiny Side Up wrote:Actually the garmin and avidyne set ups are very reasonable to learn the ins and outs of if one spends a little bit of time with their simulators which can be aquire to use on one's PC at home. The exercises are comprehensive and the systems are relatively user friendly. Personally the Garmin is more user friendly, but that's splitting hairs. The handbook I acquired on how to instruct with them (and an associated course I took) were very enlightening, and dealing with the various failure modes of the single or multi display set ups. I could go on, but suffice to say it ain't rocket science stuff. Manipulating any of the displays tend to have more commonality than one would think, so transitioning from one system to another really shouldn't throw anyone for a loop.
Definitely any kind of glass makes life easier. What would be its purpose if I didn't? Why is it traeted as if its made life harder? No one has to climb up into the astrodome anymore.
PROC_HDG