Flying the Garmin Perspective

It was early in the morning around 7.15am when I started my Instrument practice flight. I took off with no significant weahter around me...... about 5-6 miles visibility and dark blue sky and the sun rising. It was an absolutely magnificent site. Anyone, who appreciates colors and flying in Florida, should either go at sun rise or sun set……it is like traveling to another planet at times.

After I did my thorough run up I was cleared for take off soon there after. I was handed over to Orlando departure only 2-3 minutes I after took off and I was heading towards my first destination to fly my first approach. The weather at my first destination however, was .25 miles visibility and 100 feet overcast. It was perfect to put the Garmin Perspective and its many automated features to the test. The new Perspective panel in the Cirrus 22 starts way down on the console at the throttle lever and extends upward and outward from there. The throttle lever features a ‘take-off/go-around’, or TOGO button, located on the pilot’s side of the throttle handle. It does a lot of things for a pilot. Before I took off, I hit the button which set the flight director command bar for me. By pressing that button I knew what attitude to fly on departure. However, and more importantly, on go-around while automatically making the missed approach which I did in Daytona Beach that morning the button gave me those same command bars for the go-around while automatically making the missed approach procedure the active leg of the flight plan. With the Avidyne I had to manually manipulate the system to obtain the same results. Although, I or any instrument rated pilot should already know what the procedure is, if in doubt, I just had to look at the multi function display and it was right there for me.

You can still control most functions of the MFD at the display by using the knobs and buttons , but the good news is, I did not have to. The Garmin Perspective has an FMS keypad for doing most chores, like creating and modifying flight plan, entering frequencies and putting them into the active transceiver, calling up and activating approaches and more. That came very handy for me that morning since I had to use another airport that I originally planned to fly the next approach into. Deland was only a few miles away and I was cruising at 175 knots. You can imagine how things happen really quickly. You better stay ahead of the plane or things can get ugly very fast at such speeds. The keypad saved me that morning. A few twists and turns on the very easy to turn knobs and the GPS 30 was in the ‘can’. This is really easier than using concentric knobs to do the inputting, not only because it is faster to type in a value than to twist it is, but now I did not have to reach up to the display to do it or move to an entirely different box with a different interface.

After I accepted the option and touched down amongst parachuters I took off again and the last few approaches were done as easily as the ones I went missed on.

What a pleasure to fly the Cirrus aircraft with the Garmin Perspective.