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EFIS evaluated: glass cockpits are standard these days, but what do pilots like and dislike about them? And are they safer? We asked pilots to rate the systems.

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AN AVIATION SAFETY MAGAZINE STAFF REPORT

Electronic flight displays--glass cockpits in the modern vernacular--were a novelty just six years ago. Then all at once, it seems, they were everywhere. Every new airplane is delivered equipped with some kind of glass and older airframes are seeing retrofits. Steam gauges are still in the majority, but there's enough glass out there to pose this question: Is it really better? More important, is glass actually more reliable and safer?

Lacking a detailed blind study, a take-it-to-the-bank answer isn't possible and would, in any case, be subject to debate. So we did the next best thing. We joined with our sister publication, Aviation Consumer, and surveyed more than 300 owners and operators of various types of EFIS displays. Via an online survey published by our news service, www. avweb.com, we asked owners to evaluate the very idea of electronic displays compared to conventional iron gyros and analog pitot-static instruments. Is the glass easier to use? Do owners like the displays? What's the maintenance like? And above all, do these sophisticated but relatively untried systems inspire the confidence necessary to charge off into the gray innards of hard IMC?

Both of our magazines have received e-mails complaining about system failures, and more than one of these has claimed reliability is worse than the industry claims. If this were true, we reasoned, our survey would turn up a substantial number of complaints. It didn't. While owners did report glass failures and several pilots reported more than one failure, there was no widespread pattern related to poor reliability.

Overall, EFIS users--owners, renters, instructors--like the systems, no matter what type they've flown. Most have suggestions for improvements, but only a tiny fraction say they'd prefer going back to steam gauges.

IS GLASS SAFER?

As the old Packard ad used to say, to find out, ask the man (or woman) who owns one. Or at least flies it on a regular basis. Based on the survey, we would say that glass users are overwhelmingly satisfied that glass systems are safer and provide benefits worth the cost and effort of having them. (Effort means training, and this is no trivial thing, as we'll examine later.)

Eight of 10 survey respondents told us their expectations in flying with glass panels had been met, and an equal number said the systems have delivered on the promise. That's another way of saying the level of disappointment is low.

"Foolish to fly without this or similar technology these days....

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