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Like it or not. Fly it or not. Glass is here. During a recent search of the archerbravo.com database, that fact became very clear. I was able to find more than 70 rentals in California with glass cockpits. While that's only one-half of one percent of the rental fleet in California, the numbers are expected to jump in 2006.

Why? The price is becoming less of a factor for pilots who rent. Here's a good example: we found a 2005 Cessna 172 with a G1000 cockpit going for under $120 an hour in Southern California. Many 172SPs without the glass rent for about the same price. But it doesn't stop there.

Many flight schools are offering special check-out rates. Diamond Aviation in San Carlos, California (SQL) has a deal where its members get $10 off the hourly rate the two glass 172s on the flight line during the check-out process. Other schools have similar deals.

And glass might be more than just an incentive to get someone in the door. "If flight schools want to stay in business, they'll want to go with this," said Andy Dutzi, the owner of The Flight School at Palm Springs (PSP). His school claims to have had the first all-glass Cessna 172 in the nation. Now glass makes up the majority of his fleet, in great part thanks to the fact that his school is a Cessna Pilot Center.

"Nobody wanted to fly them in the beginning. Now it's a different story," says Dutzi, who estimates that 90% of his students perfer the glass to the "steam gauges." But how do students decide whether the new technology is for them? "We make sure that our students fly both. We let them decide what they like more."

Flight instructors we talked to are themselves getting more comfortable with the glass - a process that extends beyond the initial check-out. Good to know if your instructor is new to glass, as well. Maybe wait a month or two.

As for students? Duane Danbova, a flight instructor that works out of the Bay Area, says most students are very interested in the glass. But he has found one initial bad habit. "Their heads are down in the cockpit too much." Can't blame them. It's hard to turn away from the future.