G'day William,
I don't disagree with much of what you say. As an Experimental owner you have the option to choose non-certified equipment if you wish. Some will have reasons to go one way or another. Certification is often the mark of a "quality" product - i.e. repeatable. It does not always indicate a good product.
The vendor you mention is perhaps not a good example of a satisfactory business model - certified or not. Three years ago when I was at Oshkosh it was fairly well known amongst the avionics vendors there that some of their stuff "did not work" to the point that some would not sell or recommend them. The recent events with that company are not really a surprise to many of us.
To me it is about selecting a vendor that treats their customers well and delivers a superior product. What that means is in the eye of the beholder. My personal experiences with Garmin have been OK ? but not as good as some of my other dealings.
Garmin is the state of the art. All other vendors, experimental and certified will be measured against them.
That is a pretty subjective statement. Do you mean they are the best, have the most capability, the best user interface? They definitely cannot claim to be the first. In many ways that is smart - they have allowed others to feel out the market and develop it for them.
This is a spurious statement against what? --against glass cockpit? --against advanced technology? or against bad decisions? Are you suggesting Garmin is to blame for this pilot not flying? Should manufacturers not come out with new products to protect buyers investments? How much should a manufacturer dumb down a product? I'm a little confused by this paragraph.
For your hangar mate, the only suggestions I would make is that; he should have bought a steam gauge C182 or should give up flying entirely if he is not willing to invest the time in training.
It is a statement that for a significant cross section of the pilots out there, technology and glass cockpits is not what it is all about. Having 50% of the value of the aircraft tied up in avionics is a concern if those components are obsolete as quickly as the average desktop PC.
As an owner of some of this technology I still get excited when I see new product released, but part of me cannot help wondering if the next announcement is going to see the investment in my own panel reduced even more than it has already or have me reaching for my cheque book again.
Some are simply not able to transition to glass cockpits or do not want to and yes I agree my hanger mate may have been wise to stick with his previous aircraft. However, in his defence, he got swept up in the idea of owning a technically superior aircraft/glass cockpit. He is certainly not alone in that.
Richard