DA 40

I succeeded my VFR navigation check and tomorrow I'll start flying on the DA40.
It's a single engine aircraft of 180HP for 4 people and we have a glass cockpit from now on (= no gauges anymore but all information is digital).
As the plane has 4 places we can start "backseating".
It means that we go up with 2 students and one instructor in the cabin, one student is flying while the other can observe (the spirit behind is that you can learn a lot by looking what your classmate is doing and learning from his mistakes).
When his mission is over students change at whatever airport and than you return to Falcon.
Backseating gives the opportunity to do longer navigations (we fly to San Diego, Flagstaff, Las Vegas,...) and from now on we can fly at night as well because for IFR flying you don't need outsite references.

For now, I have to study new flows, checklists, the critical speeds of the airplane, all the new systems we didn't have in the DA20, new procedures, learning how the G1000 (our glass cockpit screens with a lot of buttons)...
A lot of new stuff to learn but also new experiences and a lot of fun ahead!

Tomorrow I have my first mission to get familiarized with all the new procedures and systems and directly after that I'll jump in the simulator for a refreshment of ILS approaches, steep turns, patterns,...

Save landings everyone!!
Grtz, Matthias