Glass cockpits all the way. So many more switches and toys to play with!
Iād say the panel used should be the one the IRL aircraft uses, based on the model year of the aircraft being simulated. For example, the Archer III I was training in in 1978 used only steam gauges, so that would be the panel I would want to use with that aircraft. I would expect use a glass cockpit in planes that used them as a standard; however, it would be a learning curve, because I never used one before. Steam gauges are just simpler and more familiar to me.
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Steam gauges all the way. But I am fine with optional digital devices as long as they can be defaulted to off. If a plane is glass by default like the Kodiak, then thatās the way it is and I wouldnāt want it to be steamy. But planes that with their maiden flight came with steam cockpit, I do not want with a glass cockpit only version at all like Blackbird attempted at first with their 737-200 until they relented and announced a steam gauge variant.
Needles just make it easier to quickly glance at and immediately know whatās up instead of consciously process some numbers.
Also navigation devices with needles make the process of navigating more engaging in my opinion and as I donāt have to deal with responsibilities and real consequences, I can afford and enjoy having a more manual process for some tasks.
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I really like having the glass cockpit in the airliners and even in the GA aircraft, but I remember when I first got started on FS2020 2 years ago ā¦
It had been a while since I did any flight simming. Started on FS5.1 back in 1995 and had FS95, 98 (737 classic with old style gauges) and 2000 but then stopped for the best part of 20 years until I spotted FS2020 on Game Pass. After downloading, I went through the basic training in the C152 and once finished I decided to hit up the world map in the C172 due to it having a bit more power
Upon loading in I was immediately blown away by seeing this G1000 glass cockpit. I had expected the 6 pack steam gauges as thatās all I had ever known - never imagined that a plane that size would have such a high tech cockpit. Over time Iāve gotten used to it and enjoy flying with it, but I did really enjoy doing one of the bush trips for the Gold Rush achievement which was in the completely old school Savage Cub
There is a nice familiarity and simplicity to the steam gauge cockpit where each piece of information has itās separate space - but definitely only for visual flying and enjoying the scenery
I voted for ādepends on the aircraftā as I really try, with a few artistic licenses, to fly the plane as it is flying today.
Something I donāt really understand is why some devs create an add-on for a plane that is currently flying but instead of giving us the current version of the plane travel in time back to 1950 and recreate a cockpit that is no longer used.
Donāt get me wrong, I have nothing against vintage simulation but Iām not sure why devs canāt also provide the modern version of the instruments for those that prefer to simulate current events in my mind vintage should be the optional as we live in current time and the sim has the world in current time and not how it looked 50 years ago.
Glass cockpits and automation exist to reduce pilot workload.
Flying my Bonanza with its G1000 lets me focus more on the world, and less on nostalgic task management.
I need all the help I can get! 
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While glass cockpits are no doubt incredibly useful in the real world I really dislike them in the sim for various reasons:
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they are ugly! Those garish oversaturated colors, especially the blues for the skies look absolutely horrible. Steam gauges are always nice to look at.
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they are boring and sterile! Every cockpit with a Garmin glass cockpit looks the same, with zero individual character, despite some custom readouts. This fact is great in the real world, but terrible in the sim. I want variety and individual cockpit layouts, when I purchase a new plane. Not just a new bezel for the very same screen.
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they are fiddly and distracting, with submenus instead of dedicated controls and the tightly packed information with small digits. I can take in the information of steam gauges from the corners of my eyes, thanks to the gauge needles, but with glass cockpits I have to lower my gaze into the cockpit to get the information.
Have I mentioned that they are ugly? Wellā¦ they are! Simulated flight for me is not about training for the real world, but pure enjoyment. I donāt enjoy glass cockpits
ā¦ they are the dentistās office of avionics. 
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In the sim:
- Glass is harder to read.
- Glass makes me feel like Iām playing an arcade game inside of a video game.
IRL:
I used to prefer round dials with needles in real life too, but Iāve become attached to the EFIS. The at-a-glance precision is really nice. The attitude indicator is much, much friendlier and easier to read on a glass panel, and having multiple instruments overlapping does allow me to monitor more than one at the same time.
Itās almost like the sim is ātoo digitalā, so Iām always trying to fly by pilotage, sectionals, dead reckoning, radio nav with needles etc. But in real life, the analog needs to be tamed a bit, and thatās when Iām using the GPS more and want an exact read out for things.
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Full glass cockpit is just too hard to read and interact with in the sim, gauges are much more legible because you know what theyāre telling you from the direction of the needle, donāt need to be able to read the exact numbers really.
Glass cockpits are a great tool IRL, but just too difficult to read and interact with through a sim.
For me in the sim itās absolutely either steam gauges with a GPS or full old school, depending on what I feel like or what Iām trying to do. Radio nav is a fun game, even if IRL going without some sort of GPS, even in the form of an iPad, is honestly almost irresponsible at this point. Pilots should know how to navigate without GPS in case of failures, but also should bring the tools available to them and it doesnāt require a multi thousand dollar panel upgrade anymore to have precision navigation along.
If anything older school CRT glass cockpits(EG 737NG) actually provide a good medium as theyāre simple enough to still be legible but do provide more information. I really do not enjoy things like the G1000 in the sim, you can barely see your slip indicator, itās hard to discern your speed/altitude/vs and interacting with it to actually use the functionality is enough of a pain I usually just donāt. GTN750 is nice as it provides a lot of information and the touchscreen interface is more mouse-friendly than a variety of buttons and knobs
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I feel like thereās a lot of people complaining about not being able to read numbers on glass cockpits, which makes me think Iām getting a better experience on a 4K display cause I can read all the Garmins fine. 
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Itās not so much that itās hard to read the numbers (Iām on 4K too), itās when youāre managing a cockpit and all the functions, especially as a single pilot, itās a lot easier to find the information youāre looking for with gauges and needles than processing a single screen-full of information that requires much finer eye movements to move from info to info. And, as I mentioned above, with all the information on one screen, your brain literally has to switch modes to change which information itās looking at, and thatās harder when youāre looking at a single screen rather than moving from one item to another.
Granted, as I noted, Iāve been looking at steamy things for 45 years, and am pretty new to glass, and most of the glass Iāve flown with is 530ās and 430ās. I havenāt even flown a G1000 yet. So, Iām completely inexperienced with using glass really, and tend to avoid it.
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A GNS530 is not a glass cockpit; thatās a GPS/autopilot unit, and usually sits alongside dial-based primary flight instruments.
The whole idea of glass avionics is to focus information for the primary flight instruments more readily without being a sea of incoherent indistinguishable dials, and for the most part I think they do that quite well. 
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Hence the poll, there are many of us that the dials are second nature, and glass is the incoherent indistinguishable mish-mash of information that we have to sort through each time we look at it.
(And, yeah, like I said, I have zero real-world experience with glass)
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That reminds meā¦. Black Square Starship when?
Will be interesting to see how readable that lot is, especially in VR!
And that doesnāt really fit our answer options now either lol
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I tend to avoid the G1000, G530 and G430. For me it is a pain to use the rotaries.
I am totally ok with any other thing.
I voted for the steam gauge cockpit only because the glass is too small to read ā¦. especially the vsi.
Iāve spent a long time learning the various Garmins and I get on with them fine however, i have a tiny office, a tiny monitor (24ā) and I really feel like Mr Magoo when Iām trying to see what the aircraft is doing (largely vsi).
A workaround I use is that I have 4 Logitech Instrument Panels and they happily display some measurements in analogue form. So I have airspeed, altitude, rpm/flaps and ā¦. VSI !
Happy ish bunny.
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I have no issues adapting to either or the various challenges. The one gauge I despise in digital form though is the VSI, for which the traditional steam gauge is so much more organic, especially bush flying. Even if I got the latest and greatest glass whizz bang bush plane, Iād put a steam VSI on the panel.
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Yeah, the thing to remember is that in real life theyād look more like if you had a 50" monitor at your desk.
Most of us are seeing the instruments much smaller than real-life on our monitors, at least from the main cockpit camera view.
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They rolled out the fancy 172 with the dual G1000s for my discovery flight and yeah itās actually pretty great in real life. I mean think about it, no matter matter how big or nice your display is a G1000 is like a ten inch display. Very easy to see and read without diverting your attention. Huge map on one side, huge synthetic vision display on the other. Easy to glance at and receive a lot of information. And ofc I wasnāt playing with the buttons on my discovery flight but where each of the knobs and buttons are would turn into second nature so you wouldnāt need to take attention away to adjust something.
On the sim to adjust one thing itās pan down, hunt for the control, if itās one of those double knobs realllly carefully make sure youāre on the right layer, now carefully rotate it with the mouse wheel.
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I bet weāre not going to hear much of anything about new planes for the next little bit with 2024 about to come out and the devs still without knowledge about what they need to do to upgrade.
Despite people claiming they wonāt upgrade if itās not a buggy train wreck on launch I bet the transition and if the promised improvements pan out the shift is going to be very fast and releasing a plane for 2020 right as everyone is getting their hands on 2024 wouldnāt make much sense
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