Flying Magazine

JUNE 3, 2025

If you’ve flown in a Garmin glass cockpit with synthetic vision, then you may have seen the Pathways feature, a series of constantly moving rectangles on the primary flight display (PFD). That works well for short runways, say 3,000 feet or less. One is flying arrivals, and the other is flying visual approaches.

Approach

Pilot Institute

JULY 4, 2025

Newer glass cockpits may show this guidance as a flight director cue on the primary flight display (PFD) Aural Alerts: A synthesized voice will call out “ Traffic, traffic ” for a TA, and explicit instructions like “ Climb, climb ” or “ Descend, descend now! ” The colored bands appear on the VSI only during an RA.

Transponder

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 15, 2025

Lateral guidance tells you to go left or right to align yourself with the runway. Heres how you decide: If you can see the runway (or certain lights or markers for the runway) when you reach the DH, you can keep going and land. The minima table lists the DA and Height Above Threshold for each type of RNAV approach.

Approach

Professional Pilot

APRIL 3, 2025

For example, a traditional airspeed indicator shows only real-time changes, while a glass cockpits trend indicator calculates exactly where the airspeed will be over a fixed unit of time and can trigger alerts or automated corrections if thresholds are breached. The Apex is offered on the Pilatus PC-12 NG.

Cockpit