Steam Gauges
Six analog dials and a vacuum-driven attitude indicator. The cockpit you'd train in at most schools is older than most students. None of it transfers to a regional jet or major airline cockpit.
▸ The CRAFT Advantage
Learn on the plane you'll actually fly.
Most flight schools still train on 1970s cockpits. The skills don't transfer to airline equipment. CRAFT trains you on modern glass and FADEC from day one, so you spend zero time relearning when you upgrade.
G1000 NXi Glass Cockpit
Two big PFD/MFD displays, synthetic vision, integrated GPS, traffic, weather, and a GFC700 digital autopilot. This is the same family of avionics you'll see in regional jets and corporate aircraft. The hours on this panel pay dividends for the rest of your career.
▸ Why it matters
Modern panels = faster transitions, fewer hours relearning later.
Every hour you log on a G1000 platform is an hour you don't have to learn from scratch when you upgrade to an IFR rating, commercial, or your first airline type rating. Glass cockpit skills compound. Steam gauge skills don't.
vs
Three Levers
Throttle, propeller pitch, mixture. Three controls to manage on every power change, every climb, every descent. Mismanage any of them and you're cooking cylinders or detonating fuel. Cognitive load that has nothing to do with actually flying the airplane.
FADEC Single Lever
One lever. Push for more power, pull for less. The Full Authority Digital Engine Control computer manages prop pitch, fuel flow, and mixture for you in real time. The Diamond DA40 NG was the first FAA-certified Part 23 piston aircraft with a single-lever FADEC.
▸ Airline transition
One lever today = one lever forever.
Every modern jet, every turboprop, every regional and major airline cockpit you'll ever sit in uses single-lever digital engine control. Learning on three levers is learning a skill you'll have to unlearn when you make the jump. Train on FADEC at the PPL stage and the muscle memory carries straight through to the right seat of an E175, CRJ, or 737. You're not just learning to fly, you're learning to fly the future.