It's looking like good times continue for Cessna, especially with the news that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has ordered 16 new 172 Skyhawk SPs equipped with the Garmin G1000.

"Students love the glass cockpits," said Frank Ayers, chairman of the Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach flight department and associate professor of aeronautical science. "The old analog gauges are a throwback to a time before computers. The students are more comfortable with digital technology.

The digital features offer additional information and heightened situational awareness in the cockpit, helping make navigating safer - something especially important to new pilots."

The 16 new airplanes will join the 24 Skyhawks in the Embry-Riddle fleet.

Deliveries are scheduled for second and third quarters of 2006. Embry-Riddle plans to convert most of their fleet to digital (glass) cockpits, retaining a few analog airplanes for instrument training.

"ERAU chose to incorporate G1000-equipped aircraft into the fleet because we think the Cessna 172 is a great training aircraft, and because we want to continually expose our students to the latest in technology," Ayers said.

"We also waited until Garmin could integrate the Automatic Dependant Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) into the G1000. We have been the only major university and the only major flight school of any kind using the ADS-B collision avoidance system, and we believe in it so strongly that we will not fly without it."

There are 1,100 students enrolled in the aeronautical science degree program at Embry-Riddle's Daytona campus and more than 900 enrolled at Embry-Riddle's Prescott, Ariz., campus.

FMI: www.cessna.com, www.erau.edu