Let’s say you’ve got an older bizjet, one worth less than a cool million, but it’s still a great airframe with good engines. But it lacks so much, including the ability to fly WAAS/LPV approaches. What does one do that’s in keeping with the value of the plane? Because, let’s face it, a half-million-dollar investment in a million-dollar bird can be tough to justify. 

Avidyne has the answer with its new Atlas rail-mounted color touchscreen FMS with all the digital approach goodness plus a full QWERTY (so easy to type that word) keyboard AND a VHF transceiver for starting at around $45,000 for a single unit and, well, about twice that if you want to make yours a double. The keyboard, again, is beautifully executed, with large, easy-on-the-fingertips lighted keys and a removable brace/guard.

The system gives pilots a full-color moving map with touch screen, Jeppesen electronic approach charts and airport diagrams and more.

We met with Avidyne founder and president Dan Schwinn and marketing director Tom Harper at NBAA this week for a guided tour and were impressed. The units are based on the company’s successful IFD550, which we reviewed and loved, so the technology is all proven.

Harper said that for planes that have just upgraded to ADS-B, the system can take advantage of an existing WAAS antenna for additional savings and installation optimization.

The company is looking to identify initial STC airplanes. Certification is planned for next year.

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ADS-B are four letters (and a hyphen) that strike fear into the hearts of aircraft owners, at least those who have yet to equip their birds with the next-gen surveillance gear, which the FAA is mandating be in the cockpit for essentially all business aircraft (and lots of non-business aircraft, too) by January 1, 2020.

At NBAA earlier this week Avidyne announced that it had a solution to the ADS-B problem, which it calls “G.L.A.S.,” for GPS Legacy Aviation Support–perhaps it’s not the greatest acronym, but wait until you hear what it does. The announcement might not have seemed like big news at the time, but once owners caught wind of the offer, the appeal of it was immediately clear.

The Avidyne “fix,” which is much more than just making the plane ADS-B compliant, involves installing the company’s IFD550 multi-function navigator, which does the ADS-B thing very nicely and includes a built-in ADS-B compliant WAAS receiver. It also has a wealth of other great stuff. It’s a terrific navigator—we flew and loved the IFD540 version of the product—it has built-in attitude reference sensor and 3D synthetic vision, touch and/or bezel control, built in nav-comms, terrain alerting, approach charts, and more, so in addition to the ADS-B component, owners get tons of additional features, and at a cost that’s a lot less than updated the factory installed legacy hardware. Avidyne estimates that it could be half the price and a fraction of the time of competing solutions, while, again, bringing tremendous additional features and capabilities.

The other part of the equation—yes, more value-added capability—is that IFDs with G.L.A.S. will drive existing displays—EFIS displays and even mechanical HSIs—to display LPV approaches, something they are currently incapable of doing. Avidyne pulls this trick off by essentially getting the FMS to drive the nav needles in such a way as to make them behave as though they are flying an LPV approach instead of an ILS. WAAS approaches, of course, hadn’t been invented when many of these systems were installed. The end result to the pilot is transparent.

Avidyne says its GLAS package will typically go for under $100,000, in some cases a great deal under that figure. While that still might sound like a high sum, compared to the alternative of paying as much as $200,000 or $250,000 for a legacy solution! well, it quickly becomes clear why owners were excited by the prospects.

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The KSN 770 displays GPS, WAAS and NAV/COM functions on a 5.7-inch display that offers 640×480-pixel resolution on an intuitive interface.

For many years, Bendix/King (a division of Honeywell) had a virtual lock on avionics in general aviation (GA). Get in a 20-year-old airplane with a panel that hasn’t been upgraded and you’ll probably find at least one Bendix/King NAV/COM, ADF, transponder or audio panel (on many airplanes, you’ll find a complete Bendix/King radio stack). Even today, many used airplane ads list “King panel” or “King radios” among their selling points.

With the introduction of Garmin’s color GPS/NAV/COM, the GNS 430, all of this began to change. The lure of bright-color displays and the ability to integrate all NAV/COM functions into a single unit proved compelling to most of the GA community. Bendix/King responded with the color KLN 94 GPS, but it lacked Garmin’s integrated NAV/COM functions and didn’t make much of a market impact. Today, when you look at ads for newer airplanes, “Garmin panel” is a huge selling point.

When I mentioned all this to Clark Badie, Honeywell’s product marketing manager for crew interface aftermarket products, he didn’t disagree. But he informed me that Honeywell thinks it has a product that will reverse the situation: The Apex Edge Series KSN 770 provides GPS with WAAS and digitally tuned NAV/COM functions on a 5.7-inch diagonal display offering 640×480-pixel resolution (four times higher than the Garmin GNS 430). The unique, intuitive user interface features optional 16-watt transmitter power (10 watts is standard) and is compatible with a variety of weather avoidance and traffic products, offering integrated moving-map and terrain-awareness functions.

Badie is particularly proud of how easy the KSN 770 is to use. “We spent a lot of time making sure we had the interface done right,” he said. “It includes graphical flight planning based on the flight management systems from our bizjet products, but it’s oriented for single-pilot users. And our product aesthetics are great—it’s a modern-style unit that’s functional in the cockpit.”

One key feature is the KSN 770’s cursor control device, with which, according to Badie, “You can point to any waypoint on the flight plan, click on it and click again to select functions like holding patterns. It’s also used for scroll and pan, and the cursor shows you where it’s focused, be it on the thumbnail or on the main display. It makes operation as intuitive as possible.”

Some competing products have been criticized as difficult to learn, based on the excessive use of programmable “soft keys.” Honeywell is well aware of that issue. Badie says, “We’ve tried to strike a balance between what’s easy to learn and what’s easy to use once you have the system figured out. We’re using a combination of hard keys on the left, context-sensitive hybrid keys on the bottom and soft keys on the right for less regularly used functions. You don’t need to go through three- and four-deep functions, which is nice.” And he confirmed that a software simulator will be available for the product when it’s launched this fall.

Bendix/King has been advertising the KSN 770’s digital NAV/COM as a major feature, and I asked if this meant that it could support VDL Mode 2, as called for by the FAA’s NextGen national airspace plan. Badie responded in the negative: “Currently it’s a digitally enhanced VHF communication radio, intended to provide the best voice quality using the same technology as our Primus Apex series of digital radios.”

The KSN 770 will support a wide range of external weather sources, including a radar transceiver module, Stormscope and XM Satellite Weather via Bendix/King’s KDR 610 datalink module. Badie also reported that Honeywell is “looking at a more robust set of interfaces” that could handle a wider range of third-party weather sources. For traffic avoidance, the unit is compatible with many options, including TCAS 1 and 2 and Mode S/TIS.

Looking ahead, I asked if the KSN 770 could be upgraded to work with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which the FAA plans to phase in over the next decade, ultimately as a replacement for ATC surveillance radar. (For more on this, read Making ADS-B Work.) Badie said the KSN 770 will have hardware hooks to support either 1,090 MHz analog mode, digital universal access transceiver (UAT) mode or possibly both, though a software upgrade will be required to enable ADS-B operation.

The KSN 770 is intended as a retrofit item in existing radio stacks. Regarding whether any wiring could be reused, Badie said, “That depends on what’s in the panel—if you’re installing a center stack or MFD for the first time, you’ll have to wire it from scratch, but if you’re upgrading an existing stack, you can probably reuse much of the existing wiring.” The company is working with dealers to get an idea of how much shop time will be required for installation, but Badie agreed that it would probably be comparable to the time required for other advanced multifunction devices. I asked what kinds of indicators the KSN 770 could be used with, and Badie said, “The 770 has a wide range of analog and digital CDI and HSI outputs, which are pretty standard. If they use standard signals they should be supported.”

Honeywell is marketing the KSN 770 as part of its Bendix/King Apex Edge Series, offering the potential to create a complete glass panel. I wondered if an owner could install the KSN 770 in the radio stack first, then add the KFD 840 PFD later. Badie believed this would be possible and added that the combination of the two units provides a matched panel set. No specific features, however, are required from one to work with the other, so buyers could combine the KSN 770 with a different PFD, or the KFD 840 with a different MFD and radio stack.

The list price of the KSN 770 is $13,995. Honeywell expects to begin taking orders this fall. It will be TSO’d for IFR operation and certificated through an STC with approved model list. For more information, browse www.bendixking.com or call (877) 712-2386.

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Avidyne Entegra FMS900W

An interesting trend has been emerging: Upgrades for existing aircraft are bringing older airplanes into the modern, electronic, glass-cockpit age. Glass upgrades or even whole retrofit panels can make you think you’re flying the newest aircraft in the sky.

Garmin’s Synthetic Vision Technology has been a recent crowd pleaser, and the VistaNav portable system (now exclusively marketed by Honeywell) is available for any aircraft, even those without electrical systems (though the obvious mismatch is noted). Avidyne is bringing front-line glass panels to many legacy aircraft; Aspen Avionics is doing it one module at a time. Engines and systems aren’t overlooked either; and portable navigation, weather and traffic monitoring are all widely available, at ever-better prices.

All of these safety enhancements provide better situation awareness and improved navigation capabilities, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook the basics, like watching for that ol’ nemesis, carbon monoxide. With the availability of affordable technology, we now have absolutely no excuses.

Avidyne Entegra FMS900W
New technologies are powerful. Unfortunately, they’re often complicated, so Avidyne decided to make the latest WAAS and required navigation performance (RNP) technologies available to the solo IFR pilot. The company integrated heavy-duty capability into an intuitive, user-friendly FMS, which lowers pilot workload with automatic NAV/COM tuning and ident, flight-plan invert and holding pattern info (all the while maintaining four COM and four NAV channels, operating simultaneously). Particularly impressive are Airway Flight Planning and Avidyne’s exclusive GeoFill, which together reduce flight-plan data entry by as much as 75%. Announcements on pricing and availability will be available later this year. Learn more at www.avidyne.com.

Aspen Avionics
Aspen Avionics of Albuquerque, N.M., is creating an empire based on the world’s huge inventory of perfectly good steam-gauge GA aircraft and the supreme desirability of glass-cockpit technology. With STCs for dozens of popular airplanes, the PFD and MFD modules fit the original holes and present all the information you’re used to from glass, while interfacing with most existing technology, including GPS, VHF navigators, autopilots and many FMS. Each module features a built-in air data computer that displays wind speed, wind direction and true airspeed. Upgraders can add units as budgets permit: PFD, MFD, redundant PFD—unit capability is somewhat customizable (and priced according to desired capability). Learn more at www.aspenavionics.com.

Anywhere Map Travel Companion (ATC)
The Anywhere Map Travel Companion is a full-function aviation navigator with tons of extra features (like 100LL.com fuel pricer/locator and “cones of safety” glidepath information). About the size of Garmin’s 496, but roughly half as thick, the Traffic Companion uses a dual-core processor and doesn’t need an external antenna; its no-knob, touch-screen face features a larger screen with double the resolution of the 496. On the ground, its street-mapping offers 3D building detail. All software is preloaded—just turn it on and use it. A fully loaded version, with XM WX and Pocket Plates approach plates, goes for $1,695; a bare-bones version costs $895. Learn more at www.anywheremap.com.

Bendix/King Apex Edge Series KSN 770
Designed specifically for the retrofit market, the KSN 770 Integrated Communication Navigation Display, part of the Apex Edge Series, brings higher-end Honeywell functionality into general aviation. On one 5.7-inch screen, it combines 24-channel WAAS/LPV capability with IFR GPS navigation, integrated TAWS, a weather radar display and 16-watt digital VHF NAV/COM/ILS units. Higher-end options include displays for on-board weather radar, lightning, datalink weather, TCAS and TAWS-B. We predict that it won’t be long before this system is also offered in the OEM market. Suggested retail price is $13,995. Learn more at www.bendixking.com.

For a complete review of this product, read “Tech Talk: KSN 770” (Plane & Pilot August 2008), available on newsstands or at planeandpilotmag.com/products/tech-talk.

Bendix/King VistaNav 1000
Synthetic vision systems are all the talk lately, but we want to remind you that they’ve been in the experimental market for several years, providing what looks like a “severe clear” 3D VFR picture of what’s outside, even at night, in clouds or with a bird on the windscreen. Bendix/King’s VistaNav portable synthetic vision operates on a Samsung tablet PC and interfaces through a Bluetooth link with a small box that contains a WAAS/GPS, solid-state gyros and pressure sensors. Utilizing aircraft or battery power, the Bendix/King VistaNav 1000 helps you fly a Highway in the Sky (HITS) route through “visible” terrain, with options for NEXRAD weather, TAFs, TFRs, METARs and NOTAMs. Learn more at www.bendixking.com.

CO Guardian
This line of self-contained carbon monoxide detectors warns of dangerous levels of the deadly gas. Starting at $149, all models produce loud warnings when the cabin approaches unacceptable levels of the tasteless, odorless gas. Moving up the product line, CO Guardians add gas-level information for concentrations below the basic 50 ppm trigger point. Some also integrate with many popular MFDs, including the Garmin G1000, and can furnish OAT and cabin pressure. (Low cabin pressure can make you more susceptible to the effects of CO.) The most basic units fit in your car and charge in your cigarette lighter outlet. Learn more at www.coguardian.com.

Forward.Vision EVS-100
Forward.Vision’s EVS-100 long-wave infrared (LWIR) system keeps evolving and improving to the point where, during a recent demo, praise for the “new screen” was deflected by the true explanation: “That’s the same screen; the improvement you see is all in the optics.” Still considered a “budget” system, it functions in darkness and haze, and even works as a daytime heat-source locator (traffic, anyone?), providing an extra “sense” for the pilot—a good thing when regular eyes can’t do the job. Maule Aircraft announced that the EVS-100 will be offered as an option across its line of airplanes, and the 1.2-pound system is retrofittable to just about any suitable aircraft. The EVS-100 is also being accommodated on many MFD platforms. Learn more at www.forward-vision.net.

Read about an Aviat Husky with EVS-100 technology in “Aviat Husky A-1C” (Plane & Pilot July 2008), available on newsstands or at planeandpilotmag.com/aircraft.

Insight G3 Graphic Engine Monitor (GEM)
In addition to serving as a full-function, color graphic engine monitor, this high-tech instrument serves as a data logger that tracks not only your engine’s EGT, CHT, TIT and fuel flow, but also the aircraft’s complete flight history—time, temperatures, GPS data, vibration analysis, G-forces, even prop balance and phase. Hundreds of data hours are stored on a PC-compatible SD card to aid in analysis, diagnostics or development. The instrument mounts in a standard panel hole and looks unassuming, until you scroll through its many screens and appreciate its myriad functions, all displayed in bright colors on a brilliant LCD screen. The starting price is $3,200; upgrading from an older GEM runs $2,500. Learn more at www.insightavionics.com.

Garmin G1000 Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT)
Possibly the most heralded STC of Sun ‘n Fun 2008 was Garmin’s Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT), ready to go on the Diamond DA40. Announcements from Cessna (Mustang, Caravan and piston singles) and others immediately followed. SVT presents a computer-generated GPS “perfect” image of what’s outside the aircraft, and Garmin’s system overlays that on the PFD. TAWS-B audio warnings come through enabled systems. Traffic, elevation-on-horizon data, mapped obstacles, a 3D moving map—all are displayed, allowing the pilot to fly the actual airplane on HITS, as though flying a high-tech video game. It’s a retrofit to MFD and PFD software, so expect to see a lot of installations as soon as the paperwork becomes available. Touted as a huge safety enhancer, the dual-screen Diamond DA40 option was announced at $9,995. Learn more at www.garmin.com.

For a complete review of this product, read “Tech Talk: Garmin SVT” (Plane & Pilot July 2008), available on newsstands or at planeandpilotmag.com/products/tech-talk.

Jeppesen Mobile
This is an integrated suite of more than a dozen aviation applications for touch-screen or non-touch-screen smartphones running Windows Mobile. You can check weight and balance, view METARs, TAFs and TFRs, get DUATS WX briefings with animated WX graphics, airport directories, runway diagrams and Jeppesen’s FARs Explained series. You can even create and file your flight plan directly from your phone. If you still carry a PDA, it works on most of those as well. Pricing is $169 per year (renewals are $129). Jeppesen is offering a free demo download at www.jeppesen.com/mobile.

Xerion Avionix AuRACLE CRM2120
Xerion’s CRM series of glass engine monitors for piston singles is now augmented by the new AuRACLE CRM2120 cockpit resource management system for twin-engine aircraft. Its human-factors design replaces virtually all standard engine instruments and allows a quicker, more-accurate scan, reducing pilot workload. The CRM2120 system is a fully redundant, full-time double system that has two safety failure modes: flip-flopping from one engine’s information to the other, and a “reversionary mode” that provides both engines’ information on a single screen, albeit in more compact form. It’s STC’d for popular piston singles; twins are coming on line this year, for around $13,000. Learn more at www.xerionavionix.com.

Zaon PCAS XRX
Zaon Flight Systems offers a low-cost solution for collision avoidance in its portable PCAS XRX system, which warns you of traffic. The $1,795 XRX tells you from what direction the traffic is approaching, unique to this portable collision-alert system. The XRX helps focus the pilot; it uses logic to identify the three most important targets, confining its scan to a range of up to six miles and altitudes within 1,500 feet, while prioritizing threats based on the aircraft’s relative altitude and range. Using a built-in antenna array that gathers other aircrafts’ transponder signals, the “top-of-dashboard” units are immediately portable and removable. Learn more at www.zaon.aero.

For a complete review of this product, read “Tech Talk: Zaon PCAS XRX” (Plane & Pilot February 2008).

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Many of the things these units do are easily understood, even if they might be complicated to execute. You can make checklists, do flight-planning and fuel-planning, perform density-altitude calculations, set up Vnav operations, change map setup items, set timers, predict RAIM, etc. We’ll focus instead on capabilities that are understood in principle, but turn out to be more subtle or complex when you try to use them. For example, how many different ways can you use the Direct-To operation? What does it mean to activate an approach (there’s no Activate Approach option in the KLN94 or CNX80)? Where are arrivals and approaches added into your flight plan (after your destination in the 430 or 530, just before it in the CNX80 and KLN94), and what does Activate Leg mean? Let’s explore the major capabilities of these GPS devices in some depth.

Flight Plans
Flight-plan operations are the meat and potatoes of these devices. For VFR use, a flight plan is just a list of waypoints you string together from your starting point to your destination. After you’ve activated it or made any changes, you should review it by scrolling through the active flight-plan list. The course between two adjacent waypoints defines one kind of flight leg (there are many kinds when procedures are added), and has a desired track and specific location on your map. The CNX80 has advanced features common to flight management systems and abilities to add airway segments to flight plans and, with its WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) capability, it’s certified for primary navigation under TSO-C146 (not secondary, like the TSO-C129 KLN94, and 430 or 530 systems).

The leg line is directional, always a Course-To (unlike To-From radials of a VOR). If you’re off course, the autopilot would take you to the active leg, then fly toward the next waypoint. The leg that is currently active is shown in magenta, with the others in white, and isn’t necessarily the one you’re on now (or near). You can choose to make any leg active (except in the KLN94), but by default, the one nearest to you will be selected when you activate the flight plan. If you’re within 5 nm of the departing airport, the CNX80 will automatically make the first leg active. Sometimes, however, it will declare “no active leg,” so you’ll have to choose one.

There are times (especially for IFR flight plans) when you want to activate a particular flight leg, not necessarily the one nearest to you. To “jump ahead” in the leg sequence choose Activate Leg in the 430 or 530s or Fly Leg in the CNX80. The KLN94 always selects the nearest leg when the flight plan is modified, so to jump ahead to a new waypoint in your list, you may have to use the Direct-To operation.

Since it helps to organize the recall of data from the unit, there are advantages in creating a more extensive flight plan rather than going direct. The databases are alphabetical, but can be categorized by all the nearest things (waypoints, airspaces, centers, FSS stations) or by your flight-plan waypoints. So, if you name a departure airport, rather than go direct to your destination, and include airports along the way, you can quickly find frequencies and other information about them. Also, the active flight-plan page and your map data fields will show selectable info on each waypoint, like distance, ETE or desired track. If you don’t really want to fly that zigzag route, go Direct-To your destination within the flight plan. This won’t change your flight-plan list, so you can still call up information on each waypoint quickly.

You may want to include user waypoints in your flight plan. If you’ve flown out of the Seattle area with its many TFRs, you may have been given a clearance to some lat/long point to miss them, then gone direct to your first waypoint. You can do that by making a user waypoint at that lat/long and putting it into your flight plan.

User waypoints can be created in several ways. Just push the cursor while you’re on the map page and select ENT (on the 430 or 530) or MRK (on the CNX80) to make a waypoint at your present position (enter it again to confirm it). On the KLN94, press Enter twice while on the Nav2 present position page. Later, you can go to the user waypoint list and edit the default name to one you choose. You also can make a user waypoint defined either by its lat/long coordinates or its radial and distance from any waypoint in the database.

Making a judicious string of waypoints en route to your home airport can be useful later if you come home in low visibility and marginal VFR situations. In airspace-rich areas like Los Angeles, this is a good way to thread your way around the basin.

Direct-To Operations
Many pilots use Direct-To for a quick and easy flight plan. If you have a more extended flight-plan list, you can still use the Direct-To operation. If you opt for a Direct-To waypoint off of the plan, your map will show the new flight-plan course as a magenta line to that waypoint. Your active flight-plan list is unchanged, however, and its waypoints (but not the legs) may still be shown on the map. If you later eliminate the Direct-To operation, your former flight plan is still active. To eliminate a Direct-To operation, you can cancel it in the KLN94, or 430 or 530, or just activate a leg in your flight plan in the CNX80. The 430 or 530 elimination trick is to push Direct, Menu and Enter (the DME acronym trick). For the Bendix/King, push Direct, Clear, Enter. Using Direct-To within your flight plan also is a useful tool. It takes you directly from the present position to a selected waypoint in the plan and leaves the list alone.

The Garmin 430 or 530, and CNX80 do a lot more. On the 430 or 530 Direct-To page, you can choose any waypoint in the database or select one from your flight-plan list or nearest waypoints and then choose your course to that waypoint in the CRS box (the default choice is direct from the present position).

The CNX80 does all that and more. Pushing the Direct key brings up a set of soft keys, labeled Direct, Hold, Dest, FlyLeg, CrsTo, CrsFr and OBS. This is where you activate specific legs (here, the one ending in GMN, which has the cursor on it) or go to or from a waypoint on a specified course. With the KLN94, you can specify the OBS course numerically only if the unit is not switched to your CDI.

Leg Sequencing
If you haven’t added any procedures into your flight plan, the unit will automatically sequence from one leg to the next right to your destination and will provide error information to drive the autopilot in NAV mode as well. Unless you have a GPS or use Sandel’s SN3308 “glass HSI” in the AutoSlave mode, you’ll have to change the OBS setting on your CDI to the new desired track at each waypoint. For course correction, many autopilots look at both the cross-track error from your active leg and the difference between the GPS desired track and OBS setting on your CDI or HSI.

If you push the OBS key (on the KLN94, and 430 or 530) or the Direct and OBS keys (on the CNX80), the next waypoint then behaves like a VOR. You dial in a Course-To with the OBS needle on your CDI and your flight-plan line on the map will pivot about the next waypoint to align with that course. With OBS selected, the leg sequencing is stopped. Using Direct-To on a course does the same thing, but doesn’t suspend leg sequencing. One example of flying a different course to your next waypoint is (after takeoff) to join a nearby airway that goes through that waypoint.

Stay Tuned For Part Two
The addition of departures, arrivals, approaches and flying airways adds sufficient complication to a flight plan as to require a good understanding of the capabilities described here. In part two of this article, we’ll see how the Direct-To and Activate Leg tools become critical in manipulating IFR flight-plan legs so that your flight plan and ATC directions don’t conflict. We’ll also describe how procedures are added into a flight plan you create, and what problems that can cause you, often at busy and critical times.

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