I had these same questions of TruTrak. I have a Sorcerer and G3X. I've been told by a couple people at TruTrak that you can't get a flight director without the AP being engaged. I think this is a serious shortcoming of their product.
However, the G3X does give you "Highway in the Sky" (HITS) guidance on most (but not all) segments of approaches. I've grown used to flying based on this, but I still want a Flight Director. Especially when outbound or doing procedure turns on an approach where HITS is not displayed.
Thanks for that input, and I feel the same way.
As a now-retired professional pilot with over 40 years of IFR flying, I well appreciate the difference between qualification and currency. In 2006 I bought a steam-gauge IFR RV-6 with the intention of using it to increase versatility on cross countries by not having to count on VFR conditions over the entire route. With some help (I'm not a builder), I modified the panel to add a backup attitude reference and WAAS capability to ensure that the airplane was capable of flying an approach to low IFR minimums if necessary, and I planned to practice enough to maintain currency. Unfortunately, my employer sold his C-650 a few months after I bought the -6, and financial considerations interrupted those plans.
In another ill-advised move, I bought the -7 in part because the glass cockpit offered so much more capability, and I figured that I could maintain currency more easily with the EFIS PFD and MFD presentations I was familiar with. And wouldn't you know it, that was in 2013. Garmin had just come out with the 305. Combined with the G3X touch, my brand-new airplane was instantly rendered somewhat obsolete.
For a number of reasons, I've not been able to practice IFR approaches frequently enough to feel adequately prepared for the real thing. RVs are so wonderfully light on the controls and sensitive to pilot input, that raw-data approaches require a fine touch and proficiency born of recent practice.
I modified the panel in this airplane myself with harnesses from Stein Air to improve IFR capability the builder didn't include, so I'm both tempted and leery about trying to add the 305. And the bottom line, of course, is that with or without the upgrade, capability of the equipment means nothing without pilot proficiency in using it.
Based on my previous experience trying to keep up, I might install the 305 and learn soon after that it's been replaced by a cheaper, more capable, easier to install option.
Sigh . . .
Tosh
