recent spirited discussion with Frank Bowlin, my counterpart at sister publication IFR magazine, got me thinking about the largely ignored aftermarket avionics training market. Bowlin pointed out that a sizable part of the critical training market is underserved, and we missed an opportunity to expose this industry failure in the glass cockpit training article in the June 2014 issue of Aviation Consumer.
That article focused on training solutions—mainly apps and desktop programs—that could save some time and money when transitioning to glass-equipped aircraft. While there are plenty of Garmin G1000 training products, our research uncovered few options for learning retrofit systems, save for a Sporty’s app that covers Aspen’s Evolution PFD. Still, I’m not convinced there can be a one-size-fits-all training solution given the variations that exist in wiring and interface configurations.