The NTSB came to the conclusion yesterday that glass cockpits are not safer than conventional steam instruments. The study began more than a year ago to determine whether light fixed-wing aircraft equipped with glass cockpits such as the Garmin G1000 and Avidyne PFD4000 were actually safer, but the results found steam instruments have less of a fatality rate than the flat panel display systems.

The study, which looked at the accident rates of 8,000+ light piston-powered fixed-wing aircraft manufactured between 2002 and 2006, discovered that ones equipped with glass panel cockpits had a higher fatality rate then similar aircraft with conventional steam gauges. These accidents can be caused by any number of things, such as the pilot instilling too much faith in the autopilot system, distraction,  or not adequetely trained on the device, etc. If a pilot flies various types of aircraft this can lead to a  problem of proficiency with each one, since each may vary greatly.

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