Aviation Technology

One of the biggest new technologies for GA is the new G1000. This thing is by far the coolest glass cockpit system available in GA. There are many new things that this system can do that other systems before could only dream of. First off you can have either a two or a three display system, with your choice of either 10 or 12 inch displays. If you want an even bigger display you can choose the giant 15 inch display which are are interchangeable, so between you primary flight displays (PDF) and you multi-function display (MFD). The G1000 replaces traditional gyroscope instrument with it's new GRS77 Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) This system also has the new GFC700 autopilot, which can control airspeed as well. The multiple displays are a life saver, especially at busy airports, because you can have your Jeppesen charts, and airport diagrams on your other displays. If you thought all of that was cool then you will be blown away by Gamin's new Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT). This is really cool, because it shows you a 3-D model of the ground and even tells you if you will hit something if you stay on your current path. You can literally fly down a valley in complete fog and know exactly how far you are away from the mountains (although I would not recommend it). Lastly you can even have XM satellite weather on your G1000 that will show you where the storms are within minuets. There are also many other features to see the G1000 for yourself go to https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=6420&ra=true .

Ways to practice

You can of coarse go grab a plane at your school, but unless you have deep pockets you will not be able to do this for long, because it gets very expensive. Your flight school will probably have some flight simulators that you can hop in and practice for free. The only problem with them is that most of them you need at least two people to run, because there needs to be a person setting things up and failing things while you fly. If you use the simulator at the flight school you will be able to use that time as simulated time. The best thing that I have found was FSX. I think that this program is great for student pilots, and even pilots in general. Like AOPA says a good pilot is always learning. You can use this program and get a feel for the cockpit of the plane that you fly and if it is not on there you can go to many sites online and get yours. If you are a private pilot you can practice steep turns and stalls, but the best practice for instrument pilots. You can follow VOR's and NDB's, and also shoot ILS's and GPS approaches. You can put the deck at mins and pop out right at the ground. This is very good practice and gets you used to the feeling of not being able to see anything. It is also a great way to get you used to radio calls. Saitek makes great flight controls which helps even more. I use these all the time and it helps greatly. I also use a joystick with the rudder pedals a lot for a more realistic feeling on the extra and edge.