“The GTR 205 and GNC 215 products show Garmin’s commitment to offering attractive and affordable ground-based navigation and communication options while continuing to provide world-class, modern capabilities,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin’s vice president of aviation sales and marketing. “We are excited to offer these new solutions for our general aviation customers as we keep our entire product line fresh.”

With a worldwide database and an iteration of Garmin’s unique user interface, the GTR 205 and GNC 215 can be installed in either airplanes or helicopters, according to the company.

• READ MORE: Garmin Updates D2 Watch Series with Mach 1 Pro

Additional features for both units start with a pilot-selectable 25 kHz or 8.33 kHz channel spacing on a sunlight-readable color LCD with standby and active windows and station ID, accessed using dual concentric knobs and backlit keys.

The GTR 205 com is a 2,280-channel-capable VHF com and comes with 10 watts of power standard, with a 16-watt option available. It also has a built-in timer.

The GNC 215 nav/com adds to the 205 its full VHF navigation capabilities, including VOR/ILS functionality with a glideslope receiver. You can use the 215’s navaid lookup feature as well as refer to the on-screen station ID.

“The GNC 215 also has the ability to monitor the standby VOR frequency while displaying the received radial and features a supplemental CDI display for a VOR or localizer,” Garmin said in its release. “These nav/com products interface with most CDI, HSI and autopilot systems, as well as most Garmin flight displays to show the nav indicators in the primary field of view.”

Pricing is $2,695 suggested retail to start for the GTR 205, and $5,295 for the GNC 215. Both have received FAA TSO authorization and will be available in March through Garmin’s dealer network.

The post Garmin Introduces Budget-Conscious Nav/Com Radios for Light Planes appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

Here’s a short list of eight of the most important aviation technologies in the history of flying, and you might be surprised how early some of them were introduced. 

Radio Communications

There is no shortage of miracle technologies we pilots take for granted. I’d argue that near the top of the list should be in-flight radio communications. Most pilots think that radios have been around forever, and they’re not far from being right about that. You won’t find any photos of Orville sending reports to Wilbur from the Wright Flyer; it was just over a decade that the first successful air-to-ground radio call was made, when, in 1915, Captain J.M. Furnival picked up a transmission from the ground sent by a Major Prince (first name unknown), who radioed the message, “If you can hear me now, it will be the first time speech has ever been communicated to an aeroplane in flight.” It’s a little meta for our tastes—we prefer “Watson, come here, I need you.” But it was a start.

By the early 1930s, radios, which, like a few other aviation technologies, seemed to mature in lockstep with aviation’s progress, were small, light and reliable enough to have even in small planes. And around that time, the International Commission for Aerial Navigation had formed, in part to avoid a Babel-like world of communications, putting forth the first standards for aerial radio communications.

Where this technology led is familiar to nearly every pilot. Today, we can communicate air-to-ground, ground-to-air and air-to-air with ease, usually with excellent voice fidelity even from great distances. The benefits of this technology are too numerous and obvious for us to list here but, suffice it to say, it’s hard to image a modern world of aviation without pilots and controllers playing together.

Handheld Radios For Pilots

Instrument Landing System

The instrument landing system is a presumptuous, even boastful name. Even when it was introduced, it was hardly the first or the only system for helping an airplane find the airport in conditions of low visibility through the use of instruments. But just as no one complained when Muhammad Ali called himself “The Greatest,” because he so clearly was, the same was true for ILS. Whereas a VOR approach could get you within shouting distance of the final approach fix (with the help of a stopwatch, a guess at the winds and, if you were lucky, an intersecting radial), an ILS provided the whole shebang, with lateral and vertical guidance, and it did it with such precision that most ILSes got you down to 200 feet AGL. True, it required a lot of infrastructure, but it created a high-precision landing system at a time when the technologies that air navigation architects could leverage were rudimentary. They were essentially nav radio signals arrayed vertically (the glideslope) and laterally (the localizer component) with an instrument in the airplane to keep track of each. While flying an ILS takes practice and requires skills that don’t come naturally to many pilots—staying on the glideslope is as much an art as a science—it’s a self-contained system that makes the VOR approach look positively primitive.

Sure, precision RNAV approaches are better in a few important ways, but ILS was the undisputed champ of instrument flying for more than 50 years. And with it in wide use still, even for automatic landings, few expect it to go away any time soon.

GPS

The development by the United States Department of Defense of the Global Positioning System (GPS) was a watershed in area navigation, though it wasn’t the first such system. Before civil-use GPS came along in the late 1980s, there were already a few area navigation systems, though few ever made their way into the flight decks of small planes.

There are area navigation systems that calculate position based on the relative positions of radio navaids and DME—they were extremely accurate. Bendix-King’s KNS-80 navigation receiver was a modestly popular product and can still be found in the panel of some small planes, though, in our experience, they are seldom put to use.

There are also inertial systems that use sophisticated (and enormously expensive) combinations of gyroscopes and/or lasers or solid-state gyros along with magnetometers and other aids to calculate position based on rates of rotation. The science behind these various systems is complex, but their operation is fairly simple. And like sophisticated area nav units, inertial systems are very accurate. Moreover, they don’t rely on navaids or satellites to work. They are entirely self-contained. Not surprisingly, these kinds of systems were widely adopted by large commercial, military and private users.

Another system, Loran, developed during World War II, used very low-frequency radio waves bounced off the atmosphere. In its initial iteration, Loran was accurate to 100 meters or so, but in its later form, Loran-C, which came to the fore in the 1970s, it was accurate to tens of meters or better. And because the revolution in electronics enabled far cheaper, smaller and lighter receivers, Loran looked like the wave of the future. Instead, it was shut down around 25 years after it began to gain popularity with pilots of light planes.

The reason? The DoD’s Global Positioning System. GPS makes use of a known constellation of satellites to determine very precise points of location on the earth and in the atmosphere. As its name says, it really is a global system, too. When paired with a database, a GPS receiver can provide extremely accurate guidance from point to point. And when aided by additional ground and space-based systems to enhance accuracy, GPS receivers can provide pinpoint location capability, allowing approach courses with none of the angular uncertainty or radio infidelity that even ILS systems are liable to suffer.

While ubiquitous, GPS has its weaknesses. Because its signal is very low power, it can be jammed quite easily, and because it relies on satellites and associated systems, it is staggeringly expensive to field and maintain. But the impact it has had on aviation is unparalleled. And that impact pales in comparison to the beneficial impact it has had on our lives in thousands of other areas of life.

Moving Map Navigation

The idea of an electronic moving map that knows our precise position in the air and can keep track of and display an ever-changing picture of the world below is a fantasy that every pilot who ever struggled with folding paper charts entertained often. And when a few enabling technologies—GPS, low-cost displays and high-powered small processors—came along, the moving map was born. The moving map revolution, which is sometimes erroneously dismissed as an accessory to aviation, has been foundational to the advancement of situational awareness and the elimination of one of the deadliest types of crashes, controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), where an aircraft is flown by its crew into the ground by mistake. CFIT crashes are almost always catastrophic. With moving map, you get automatic situational awareness in four dimensions (time being the fourth), graphical and dynamic mapping of weather systems, airway and airport data, and so much more. Those who grew up with moving map applications are sometimes derided as “children of the magenta,” a phrase that refers to the magenta-colored course line on moving maps. I’d argue that proponents of moving maps’ benefits are merely taking advantage of far superior technologies to keep themselves and their passengers safe from situational awareness errors that were commonplace before moving maps came along. 

Today’s Electronic Flight Displays

Weather Intelligence

There is no shortage of things for pilots to be concerned about, and at or near the top of the list are a handful of serious weather phenomena. There’s inflight icing, fog, high winds, turbulence, mountain wave and garden-variety cloud obstruction, to name most of the biggies. But by far, the most hazardous weather phenomenon is convective activity, which most often manifests itself as thunderstorms, which can grow in size to otherworldly proportions and pack a punch so big it can take a small or not-so-small airplane apart.

The development of weather-gathering technologies has progressed steadily since before the advent of powered flight, but without much debate, the most significant has been the development of next-generation weather radar, which in the United States is known as NexRad. Introduced in 1988, NexRad is a powerful doppler radar that can sensitively detect storm shape, intensity, movement, convective activity and precipitation. The network of 160 radar sites in the United States provides a coast-to-coast system of weather surveillance. It is one of the crown jewels of U.S. technological achievement, providing life-saving early warnings of severe thunderstorms, tornados and hurricanes. The continued improvement of forecasting technologies and intelligence have provided aviation with tools today that were unimaginable 50 years ago, intelligence that saves billions of dollars and untold lives every year.

On top of that, aviation has enjoyed a revolution in in-cockpit weather information availability, with services like ADS-B’s TIS-B weather services and Sirius-XM’s up-to-the-minute weather information for pilots of everything from PA-28s to bizjets, allowing pilots to make solid mission-planning decisions based on real intelligence and not guesswork based on hours-old reports.

Autopilots

To many pilots, an autopilot is a dumb mechanical aid, something you can use to take a look at the chart without going off course or busting altitude. And they are that. But today’s digital autopilots are so much more, too.

Autopilots work on one common principle. The system uses navigation, heading and attitude inputs to activate servos to keep the plane going where the pilot has programmed it to go. In its simplest form, an autopilot keeps the wings level while ignoring all other parameters—this is more helpful than one might imagine; the loss-of-control chain in instrument conditions is typically begun by an uncommanded, steep bank, causing the plane to enter a spiral dive, building airspeed and making a recovery, especially when the plane is still in IMC, a dicey proposition.

Autopilots have inspired aviation dreamers to imagine what it might be able to do. Could it keep the plane on altitude, too? Tie it into the baro system, and of course it could. Could it follow a pre-programmed nav course? Yup. Just couple it to the nav receiver. Could it fly an approach? Ditto. Yup, that too. Keep the tail from wagging. Even that.

From there, engineers have gone to fantastic places. Today’s autopilots can work in the background, providing protection from surprise deviations in pitch, bank angle and airspeed, keeping the plane from getting either too slow or too fast. And several models today feature a single button the pilot can push to return the plane to straight and level flight in case of accidental loss of control (upset).

Autopilots have gone from being an expensive luxury to an indispensable tool for helping pilots keep the plane under control and assisting in flying very precise approaches, as well.

Plane & Pilot Snap Quiz: Autopilots

Active Noise-Canceling Headsets

The inclusion of headsets in a list of critical aviation technologies might seem off target, but it is not. Especially in small planes, which are almost universally too loud for our hearing health, a good noise-canceling headset is a critical pilot tool. 

Headsets have been around for a long time, and early models were heavy, clunky and not particularly effective. But they were better than nothing. A lot better. And because they early on incorporated earcup speakers and boom-mounted microphones, they helped ease communications difficulties, something pilots who never flew in the pre-headset days, when staticky ceiling-mounted speakers and handheld mics caused communications havoc on nearly every flight, are blissfully unaware of. 

New models, of course, feature electronic noise-canceling features, which work by sampling the exterior noise and creating an out-of-phase counterpart to it, effectively electronically canceling the exterior noise, at least a large part of it. 

Today, pilots take not good but excellent noise-canceling headsets for granted, but we all know the difference between the noise levels before we put them on and then after, when we don them and hit that switch to activate the sweet quiet that ingeniously designed electronics can bring. 

Plane Facts: Headsets

Traffic Avoidance

It’s rare for planes to run into each other in the vast skies above, but when they do, it’s almost always catastrophic. And it often inspires regulatory change. It was the 1956 collision between a Douglas DC-7 and a Lockheed Constellation over the Grand Canyon, killing all 128 aboard the two planes, that launched the creation of a nationwide radar network and the Federal Aviation Administration. In subsequent years, mid-air collisions in the skies above Cerritos and San Diego, California, drove additional layers of regulation, including mandatory equipment installation for planes that fly in busy airspace. 

For most of these advancements, larger military and commercial aircraft were the first to get robust anti-collision technologies. But in this case, the adoption by the FAA of mandatory transponder equipage went from the bottom to the top of the aviation food chain. The Mode C transponders sent regular, individually identifiable signals to help controllers keep track of where planes were, so they could issue heading clearances to keep the potentially conflicting traffic targets from merging in the worst way.  

Later, the FAA mandated collision avoidance systems, TCAS and TCAS II, for airliners and other large planes, the latter taking emergency, last-ditch collision avoidance out of the hands of the controllers and issuing direct clearances to the two planes involved to keep them from colliding. In recent years, even smaller planes got collision-avoidance gear, including the early TCAD system from Ryan and, later, more capable active traffic systems from companies like Avidyne and Garmin.  

Finally, the introduction of mandatory ADS-B in 2020 gave controllers and pilots new tools to individually identify and route traffic to keep potential conflict to a minimum while using satellite tracking to provide extremely accurate, up-to-the-second position information, including altitude, to all involved. 

5 Barriers Aviation Innovators Busted

The post Top 8 Aircraft Electronics Innovations Of All Time appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

Miniaturized electronics and advances in backup batteries that have emerged in recent years have hit the avionics scene full-on, and the FAA’s improving attitude toward approving new technology in the panel has accelerated an explosion of new models available for aircraft owners when the time comes to repurpose gyroscopic instruments into bookends. As clichéd as terms like “game changer” and “disruptor” may be, these instruments have ushered in a new age of reliability and situational awareness.

A Mostly Standardized Layout

The beauty of a good primary flight display (PFD) is that it needs almost no instruction for basic use. The sky is blue, the ground is a brownish-orange, and the rest should just make sense, right? Beyond that, most instruments stick to the convention of displaying altitude to the right of the instrument and airspeed to the left. A window at the center of each “tape” shows the actual speed or altitude, and the tape moves up or down in the background, indicating a trend of climb/descent or change in speed. There are some variations in how different manufacturers present this information on their displays—we’ll get into that with each instrument’s rundown. 

Aspen Evolution E5/Pro 1000/Pro MAX 1000

Starting off alphabetically, the Aspen’s offering differs a bit from other contenders. While the other instruments fit the standard hole for a single instrument, Aspen’s Evolution line takes up a bigger chunk of your panel: An over-under presentation of attitude and direction indication by a single screen takes up a 3.5- x 7-inch footprint of your panel. As long as you’re rocking a standard six-pack panel, you’re in good shape, but if you own a nonstandard-cut panel such as older Cessnas or have an angle bent into your panel—we’re looking at you, vintage Mooney owners—then you might be looking at cutting a brand-new panel for your Aspen install, which can substantially increase installation costs. The Evolution series of instruments all use the same hardware, so if you install an E5 and get envy after flying a Pro MAX with synthetic vision in a friend’s plane, you can upgrade the unit—which ain’t cheap—but you’ll move up a few tiers without having to tear your panel apart again. All the Evolution units are controlled via a combination of two knobs and a number of buttons along the right and bottom frame of the unit, so their operation is standardized, allowing you to move from one model to the next without much of a learning curve. 

With a base price of $4,495, the Aspen E5 is the budget model. It gives you an attitude indicator and HSI display. The Non-TSOed device is installable via an AML (Approved Model List) STC that covers most types of general aviation aircraft lighter than 6,000 pounds. It is directly compatible with the Honeywell AeroCruze 100 autopilot (previously known as the TruTrak Vizion), and with a few adapters, it can interface with a number of vintage autopilots. It’s approved for IFR flight when connected to a panel-mounted IFR GPS. While the unit does have an internal GPS built in, installations lacking an IFR GPS will be limited to VFR only. The Evolution 1000 Pro MAX, at $9,995, is the next step up, introducing options for terrain and synthetic vision, traffic and weather display. 

Garmin G5 

Garmin’s first entry in the field was the G5, and compared to some other contenders, it’s easy to view it as something of a simpleton. Its STC limits installation to replacing the attitude indicator or turn coordinator when configured as a PFD. So, for a typical certified install, you’d need to keep your airspeed, altimeter, VSI and turn coordinator in place. The altitude selector gives you a target on climbs or descents and keeps you honest in cruise. While there’s less information displayed than many other systems, the uncluttered display is basically the same presentation airline and business jet pilots have used for years. It makes an easy reference for pilots, and up to four hours of battery life means that in many electrical failure scenarios, your aircraft’s attitude reference will likely outlast the fuel on board. 

While the installation can be as simple as providing connections for power, ground, pitot and static, if you have compatible equipment, the display packs in flight directors, annunciators for autopilot commands, and GPS course direction. Garmin’s GAD13 interface ties a temperature probe to the G5 to add true airspeed and winds aloft data. 

A G5 can also be installed along with a GMU 11 magnetometer as an HSI to replace your DG and CDI. Add in a GAD 25B, and it’ll run selected autopilots from Garmin, Century, Cessna, Honeywell, S-TEC and Piper. A G5 DG/HSI also serves as a reversionary attitude display in case your primary attitude source fails. 

The G5 fits into a standard 3.125-inch instrument hole, but it mounts from the front to allow a larger 3.5-inch screen. 

The G5 attitude indicator is priced at $2,595, and the HSI, when set up with GPS interface, is $3,445. Unlike the newer GI 275, the G5 is sold “over the counter,” with an AML STC for installation by any A&P/IA mechanic with no need to deal with avionics shops or Garmin dealers. 

Garmin GI 275 

Garmin’s newer instrument replacement is a Swiss Army knife of aircraft instruments. Again, we’ll focus not on its many possible presentations but solely on what it will do when replacing your attitude indicator or directional gyro. (But be aware that with a different software load and some additional interfaces, that same box can serve as an engine monitor, MFD or CDI. In theory, you could build up an entire panel of GI 275s, but by the time you’ve installed three, you may as well have gutted the instrument panel and installed a G3X system.)

The GI 275 fits a standard instrument hole, and for better aesthetics from behind, so it integrates a little more subtly than is possible with the G5’s square form factor. The 275 features a touchscreen interface in addition to a two-piece knob. The limiting factor of the 3.125-inch instrument hole means the screen isn’t big, and it’s presenting a lot more information than the instruments it will replace. Plenty of folks who haven’t yet flown with a GI 275 are quick to criticize the complexity of the display, but we have yet to hear tales of buyer’s remorse from any owner who’s committed to the system. 

When configured as an attitude indicator, which also displays altitude, heading and airspeed, the GI 275 can also be configured with synthetic vision to display terrain, obstacles, traffic and a flight path marker to show the aircraft’s trajectory. As an HSI, the GI 275 can display a GPS map as the background with weather, terrain and traffic all tied in. It can also integrate with a number of legacy radios, including the venerable KX-155, which the G5 can not. 

While Garmin is quick to tout the GI 275’s seamless integration with the GFC 500 autopilot, it also works with a variety of legacy autopilot systems, including models from Bendix/King, Century, Cessna, Collins, Honeywell, Sperry and S-TEC. As with the G5, the compatible models list is available on the Garmin website and should be referenced—and doublechecked with your installer—before making installation decisions.  

When installed as a primary or backup flight instrument, the GI 275 is installed with a battery pack rated for 60 minutes of use. 

Garmin lists MSRP for GI 275 at $3,995 for attitude indicators and $4,345 when set up as an HSI. These instruments are only available installed by Garmin dealers, who ultimately determine final price and installation. 

RC Allen Mini6

RC Allen’s Mini6 is the newest offering of this instrument lineup—in fact, as we write this, it’s on the cusp of release. While this is the latest offering in the market segment, the RC Allen company has been around far longer than any others in this line—it was founded in 1932. By the 1970s, RC Allen was the largest manufacturer of general aviation aircraft instruments. Now RC Allen is owned and manufactured by Kelly Manufacturing Company. As such, the Mini6 instruments could well replace instruments of the same brand that have been in service for decades.  

The Mini6, so named because it can replace any of the six primary flight instruments, fits a standard 3.125-inch instrument cutout and is manipulated with a knob and two buttons to adjust brightness. The Mini6 sports TSO certifications for pitch and bank, turn and slip, magnetic direction, airspeed, altimeter, rate of climb and multipurpose electronic displays. 

Pilots and aircraft owners often see TSO, and their eyes glaze over at the alphabet soup that follows, but here’s the takeaway: While every other instrument in this lineup is certified under a multi-aircraft approval (AML) STC, TSO (technical service order) certification of the Mini6 means it can be installed in virtually any aircraft out there when accompanied by a simple form 337 from your inspector. There are no remote magnetometers involved—it’s all in one unit. With only four screws to mount to the panel, four wires for power, ground and GPS connections, and two connections to the pitot and static lines, installation should be straightforward. 

The Mini6 presents a classic case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” You could, in theory, wipe out your entire panel and put one of these front and center. But then you’ve created a single point of failure that could ruin the whole day—we’d consider hanging onto an airspeed indicator and maybe another altimeter at the very least. 

The Mini6’s backup battery is advertised as good for one hour at full-screen brightness, but with the screen dimmed to 80% brightness, we’re told it should last up to three hours. The battery is to be replaced every three years. The Mini6 enters the market at $3,250. 

uAvionix AV-30-C 

The AV-30-C arguably looks the most like the legacy vacuum instrument it replaces—but, in fact, its face can be changed to display the conventional blue-brown horizon or other schemes, including the older gray-black setup many classic aircraft have used for decades. The AV-30-C had been available for experimental planes for a while before gaining FAA approval—long enough that homebuilders had certified owners drooling over the combination of functionality and economy this instrument offers. 

The AV-30-C is certified to display primary attitude, slip and direction indication—unlike other offerings, the AV-30-C doesn’t have a remote unit to determine heading. Like a DG, the AV-30-C, when used as a heading indicator, has to be set to a compass heading on startup. Some early units were prone to precession and required attention to keep them from drifting far from the compass heading. It wasn’t a consistent issue—some owners reported theirs were rock steady while others said theirs drifted more than the DGs they replaced. A recent software update reportedly solves this problem, though.

As a directional indicator, the AV-30-C can display GPS information but is not certified as a primary indication as a CDI or HSI. 

The AV-30-C presents data a little bit unconventionally: With no animation to the values displaying speed, the numbers just flash from one to the next when displaying speed and altitude—both things an owner can grow to accept, although it does look somewhat crude compared to its competitors. There are no numbered tapes for speed or altitude, but there is a tape attached to the speed indication that shows the colored arcs for stall, flap operating range and redline, giving off the look and feel of conventional gauges, even if presented slightly differently. With a few hours in the seat, they’d become more intuitive than they do in just a few minutes of watching YouTube videos demonstrating the instrument. 

Like the GI 275, the AV-30-C’s display fits within the confines of a standard 3.125-inch instrument hole, but you won’t be squeezing your fingertips within the bezel to pinch and drag the information being displayed onscreen—a single knob and two buttons control the instrument. 

Whether you’re running the AV-30-C as an attitude or DG, you can set the instrument up to display a ton of other values in combinations most wouldn’t have imagined—when’s the last time you’d have thought to look at your DG to see how many G’s you were pulling? G-load, density altitude, voltage, temperature, true airspeed and probeless angle of attack are all options to display on these instruments, although some users have reported the angle of attack reporting is less than consistent.

The AV-30-C’s backup battery is advertised as good for two hours at a comfortable 20°C temperature, but if you’re operating a cold cabin, it may be worth noting that at -20°C, it’s only good for 30 minutes. Granted, most pilots would barricade themselves at home in those cold temperatures, but if you’re operating a backcountry workhorse, that’s worth noting. 

There’s an unexpected twist of functionality to the instrument: The AV-30-C can control the tailBeaconX, the company’s ADS-B transponder that replaces the tail navigation light. At the time of writing, the AV-30-C has no autopilot connectivity, although an autopilot adapter is mentioned as being in development on the uAvionix website. 

At $1,995, the AV-30C is by far the most affordable offering in this lineup, used as an attitude or directional indicator. 

Whether you’re just looking to replace a dying gyro instrument or upgrade your panel for significant IFR capabilities, these offerings give you a chance to craft your panel to your needs—and without breaking the bank in the process. While it’s cheaper in the long run to gut your panel and do one big upgrade, such as a G3X or Dynon panel, these instruments offer the chance to pay as you go and do a progressive panel upgrade as your finances allow. After all, bells and whistles are nice, but some of your airplane budget needs to be spent on fuel and $100 hamburgers. 

The post Today’s Electronic Flight Displays appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

The negative impacts to aviation of the implementation of 5G cellular towers starting late last year and in earnest early this year is news to no one. Chief though not unique on that list of affected aircraft electronics is the radar altimeter, which (mostly) larger planes, including just about all commercial and large business jets, use for precision approach and terrain warning purposes.

Before 5G cellular service was formally launched back in January, the FAA took measures to protect “big birds” using radar altimeters near large airports from potential 5G interference. The agency negotiated with the Federal Communications Commission for reduced power output of 5G antennas and created protected zones around major airports where mostly commercial aircraft will be making low visibility landing attempts in poor weather. Such operations, obviously, depend on the performance of the radar altimeter for precise and reliable awareness of altitude down to minimums. Notably, the FAA issued an AD in December 2021 specifying that NOTAMs will be issued at certain airports where radar altimeter performance has been verified as “unreliable,” thus prohibiting procedures that rely on it.

What about GA? Many of us operate fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft at small and mid-sized US airports probably never considered for a 5G protected zone during negotiations at the federal level. Our radar altimeters back up the glideslope on a precision approach and can feed an on-board terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) with its all-important data feed.

Enter the market for 5G-friendly radar altimeters, such as units rolled out recently by FreeFlight Systems. These altimeters are like ancestor units except for the addition of a “unique combination of internal filtering and Digital Signal Processing technology that can tolerate out-of-band 5G interference as well as other RF interferences,” according to the company. That “out-of-band 5G” reference is a hat-tip to the fact that 5G cellular frequencies and radar altimeter frequencies are adjacent on the spectrum, not identical. This closeness is part of the reason such a debate has raged over the technology; interference has always been a risk, but not a certainty.

The FreeFlight RA-5500 is a new dual-antenna unit specifically developed for GA applications — including the emerging eVTOL market — and specifies “5G robustness” to up to 0.2 nautical miles. There is also a “Mk II” upgrade version of legacy Model 4000 and 4500 units available, with specific addition of the 5G hardening features.

This development doesn’t address the question of why owners and operators of radar altimeter-equipped aircraft should have to buy expensive new equipment to replace previously perfectly functional existing gear with no contribution from the companies that implemented 5G.

The post 5G Hardened Radar Altimeters Emerge appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

This year’s Plane & Pilot Plane of the Year is the Diamond DA50, the big single from the Austrian plane maker that has been more than a decade in development, which makes its certification by EASA last year even more meaningful, seeing that it was so hard fought. It’s one of the most unusual and, in some ways, compelling piston singles to emerge in decades. 

If the year 2020 was a hard one for general aviation, and it was, for manufacturers, 2021 was even tougher. Plane builders were hardly immune to the kind of global pressures we’ve heard so much about, including scarce materials, supply chain disruptions, worker shortages and reduced FAA availability, all of which have conspired to make it hard to build existing designs, let alone develop and certify new ones.  

But there were a couple of real gems, one that we’ve known about for more than a decade, and one we were just introduced to. Both enter the arena as real players in markets dominated for years by planes from other makers. We expect both to make inroads.

Plane of the Year: Diamond DA50 RG

It’s often said, but it’s not often true, that this plane is different than any plane that’s come before it. This is true for the DA50. To understand what it is, imagine if Cirrus were to build a diesel piston engine-powered plane based on the Cirrus Jet and all that implies.

The DA50 has some built-in weaknesses that many would have presumed would have made it questionably interesting to potential buyers. Such is apparently not the case. The airplane is, based on our observation, the single most intriguing design on planeandpilotmag.com for the past couple of years. 

Like so many forward-thinking designs, the DA50 was for years a great airframe in search of the right engine. It had to be powerful enough, at least 300 hp, stingy with the fuel burn, easy on pilots in terms of noise and engine management, and capable of flying on fuel you can get anywhere in the world. Of course, that’s a diesel, but that correct diesel didn’t appear on the scene until the emergence of Continental’s CD-300, six-cylinder 300-max hp/270 hp continuous turbodiesel, which combines good power with a quieter noise profile than competing piston sixes while tacking on single-lever power. It’s a compelling package.

The power demands are very real, as the DA50 RG, despite its carbon-fiber frame and wings, is a substantial airplane, with an empty weight of 3,175 pounds and a max takeoff weight of 4,407 pounds. It’s a big and roomy airplane. There’s seating for five, and not seating for four/five but actually five. The seating layout is the same as the DA62 diesel twin, save the two smaller seats in the back, which the DA50 RG lacks, though the space is there and is great for bags, a better use of the space, in our view. Headroom, shoulder room and window area are all unsurpassed. The cabin environment is spectacular. 

The rough spots: It’s not as fast as many would like it to be, with a max speed at 16,000 feet—it is not pressurized—at max continuous of 180 knots. Its max range, at a power setting we presume was a good deal less than max continuous power, is 750 nm. That isn’t a lot of range compared to the Cirrus SR22, which one would assume is its primary competitor, though it is enough, apparently, for many pilots, who have expressed interest in or put their money down for this airplane that isn’t even FAA certified yet. And remember: All that travel will be done in a great space. The culprit isn’t a thirsty engine—Diamond says the CD-300 consumes just 9 gph at 270 hp, about half of Continental’s 315 hp TSIO-550 gas piston engine, which powers the Cirrus SR22—but rather a lack of fuel capacity. It holds just 50 gallons of Jet A, and finding space to put more is problematic, as there are no wing nacelle fuel tanks available for this single-engine model. 

It’s also not an easy airplane to hangar. With a wingspan of around 44 feet and a tail height of nearly 10 feet, few tee hangars would be a fit. 

How successful will the DA50 be, sales wise? Time will tell. Diamond expects certification for it later this year or early next year. We’ll fly it first chance we get, too. 

Read “Will The Diamond DA50 Redefine Personal Flying” to learn more about the plane.

Plane of The Year 2: The Sling High Wing

Our other honoree for a Plane & Pilot Plane of the Year award is Sling Aircraft’s new High Wing, which should start showing up on U.S. shores soon. The High Wing takes all of the goodness of Sling’s four-seat long-wing model, the Sling 4, and translates it into a high-wing form factor, with the remarkable 141 hp Rotax 915-iS supplying the motive force. With a comfortable four-place cabin, Garmin G3X Touch flatscreen avionics, including a capable integrated autoflight system with envelope protection built in, sharp and easy flying manners, and downward visibility to beat any low winger, the Sling High Wing is a powerful competitor to the most popular four-seat amateur-built plane on the block, the much-lauded (and rightfully so) Van’s RV-10. But you can put big tires on this one if you want, and we’re guaranteeing you right now that that will happen. 

Garmin Smart Glide

With the unveiling of its new Smart Glide utility, Garmin has created yet another capability that would have seemed like science fiction 20 years ago but that today can seamlessly and in the background always be ready to help you glide to a safe landing if your plane’s engine were to quit. It is, granted, a capability you hope you’ll never have to rely upon, but if you do, it could be a lifesaver. A Smart Glide description could fit in a fortune cookie: “Lost engine power? Smart Glide shows you where to go.” But the more you look into what that calculation really involves, the more complicated and intriguing it becomes. 

Smart Glide works in concert with a compatible Garmin display and navigator. The utility, which is all software and is very low or no cost in addition to the hardware it teams with, does this: You lose engine power, you activate Smart Glide (either by a three-second push of the Direct To button or the dedicated guarded panel button, if there is one), and Smart Glide puts a ring of where your glide range is, based on the plane you’re flying, obviously—the setup is done by the installer. It nominates the best airport for you to go for, offers alternate choices, gives you frequencies, and shows you your inflight situation in a colorful and easy-to-interpret manner. You do the flying. 

With Smart Glide, Garmin has once again advanced aviation safety in a way that requires little of pilots in an emergency situation while helping them make the quick and smart call and getting the most distance out of their airplane’s glide range. 

Read “4 Questions About Garmin Smart Glide You Hadn’t Thought About” to learn more about the technology.

SkyDisplay HUD

There is nothing simple or easy about creating a head-up display, but the folks at SkyDisplay have pulled off something really big in bringing to market a low-cost, high-performance display that essentially does what even the most advanced HUDs do, blend the airplane’s flight instruments (and then some) with the pilot’s view of the outside world so that the focus can be on what matters, the outside environment. 

A HUD enhances the view of the outside world by projecting an image on a transparent window sitting right in front of the pilot’s eyes. It is most useful as a landing aid, though it can be used throughout the flight. Without a pilot taking their eyes off of the runway, the HUD shows a wealth of information, like runway location and flight path and velocity vector, all features we’ve come to know and love on flat-panel flight displays. But the HUD places all of that information right in front of the pilot’s eyes and not on a screen below the pilot’s sightline to the outside world, where the stuff you don’t want to run into lies. The value in allowing pilots to focus all of their attention on the outside world makes for more precise approaches, always valuable but especially when flying low-weather precision approaches. 

A true HUD is conformal, and the SmartDisplay is. What that means is, the view the head-up display shows you using its additional enhanced vision technology matches what’s actually out there in the real world. If it displays the runway end, well, that runway end had better be exactly where the HUD says it is. The pilot has to do nothing but fly. The scan is right in front of their eyes. The data on the glass is focused at infinity, so it seems to just float upon the glass, so the pilot doesn’t have to focus and then refocus over and over to see the outside world and then the HUD data and back again. Instead, the data is just there, in focus as the pilot peers out at the world. 

SkyDisplay’s HUD is a huge advance in light aircraft safety, and, at its price of around $30,000 without installation, it is a tool that serious transportation flyers can put in their serious transportation plane and fly safer and better. 

Read “FAA Approves First Small-Plane HUD. How It Happened And What It Means.” to learn more about the safety system.

The post 2021 Plane Of The Year & Innovation Awards appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

When Garmin came out with a surprise launch of the GI 275 lineup of retrofit flight instruments, designed to be close to plug-and-play replacements for aging small, round, analog flight instruments, the company once again changed the used-airplane game. It’s not the first time that it has done that. Garmin had previously introduced an affordable electronic instrument, the G5, affordable flat-panels, low-priced autopilots and even a couple of new lower-priced navigators, all of which have already gone into a lot of airplanes.

Still, the GI 275, in terms of overall impact, will likely eclipse the importance of all of those new products, and by a big margin. A 3.125-inch panel-mount round gauge that does the jobs of several different analog round gauges—and for a low price, too—the GI 275 will not only enjoy wide adoption, but also multiple instruments likely will be purchased, in most instances.

Because the GI 275 is a standard 3.125-inch round instrument, it requires no cutting of the panel, making installation a lot easier, translating directly into “a lot cheaper.” There are literally hundreds of thousands of instruments in panels out there that could be replaced. It could be more than a million replacement candidate instruments.

How We Got Here

Light aviation as we know it today is a segment that depends heavily upon the existence of more than 100,000 older airplanes. The majority of these were built during the two-decade-plus-long heyday of GA, from the mid-to late 1950s to around 1980, during which time historic demographic, political and market forces combined to create a vibrant ecosystem of small, piston-engine-powered light planes flown by active pilots. These aviators grew up as WWII was playing out and came of age in time to buy affordable, plentiful new single- and twin-engine airplanes manufactured by a number of thriving small aircraft manufacturers.

As time went on and making new aircraft became more and expensive, sales of newly manufactured light planes dried up. This was in large part because the planes that were built during the 1960s and 1970s, many of which were 10 years old or less, became an unbeatable deal for would-be owners. And the fewer new planes that manufacturers turned out, the more expensive each one was to build.

At the same time, by the mid-to-late 1980s, the pilot population was shrinking, and those used planes, still plentiful and fairly young, many of them with very low hours, dominated the segment. By the mid-1990s, existing planes accounted for as much as 90% of the aircraft marketplace, a state of affairs that has persisted until recent years. To complicate matters, unlike in the automotive world, where technology and improved reliability have continued to drive new sales, existing small plane models were (and still are) substantially similar to the new planes that are being built, ostensibly to replace their aging predecessors.

Things have changed of late. The fleet has continued to shrink substantially as planes are wrecked, scrapped or otherwise age out of the fleet. In addition, the truth is that used planes aren’t the deal they used to be. They’re going up in price as their numbers decline, and as much as we’d like to believe differently, age affects everything, from housing to our own health, in undesirable ways—and airplanes are hardly the exception to that rule. Time takes its toll on every component and system, from the fuel filler caps to exhaust stacks. And maintenance ain’t cheap.

It’s important to consider that new light planes aren’t all that different from their 40-year-old predecessors. They can’t be. Most “new” models are built based on decades-old type certificates. While manufacturers do work in improvements over time, most of them, from seat belts to sun visors, can be updated, often relatively cheaply, too.

The aircraft’s flight instruments, however, have stood largely frozen in time, with few viable replacement options. In most cases, owners of older airplanes could only grit their teeth and pay to keep the old gear going for as long as possible.

Solutions

With the advent of the Garmin GI 275, a big part of that equation has changed. It’s true that Garmin’s own G5 flight instruments (HSI and AI) are popular and even less costly solutions to analog instrument replacement, but the GI 275 goes far beyond the G5’s capabilities, and considering its ease of installation, it will give the G5 a run for its money. 

There are, in fact, a number of different GI 275s, and it’s quite possible to replace the functions of all six instruments in the classic six pack—attitude, altitude, vertical speed, airspeed, heading and rate of turn—with fewer than six instruments, as some incarnations of the GI 275 perform multiple functions. The primary attitude instrument, for example (in essence a mini primary flight display), shows attitude, airspeed, altitude, vertical speed, heading and more. In addition, it displays navigation inputs, allowing the pilot to fly a course based on a flight plan entered in a compatible paired navigator. In addition, it shows flight path vector and flight director cues. As small as it is, its powers are great and many.

The uptake is that a few GI 275s can effectively replace all of the flight instruments in an analog panel, and they can do it incredibly cost effectively.

Indeed, the economics of it are compelling. For around $5,000, an aircraft owner could install a single primary display. And for around $20,000, an owner could replace the entire classic six-pack of flight instruments and come away with what’s essentially all the capability of a flat-panel suite but with far lower installation costs.

Just how many and which instruments will pilots choose to install in their planes? It’s hard to say. For starters, there are many possible combinations. Decisions will be driven in part by the existing equipment in the airplane, and others will be based on the available budget of the owner or the value of the airplane the instruments are going into, though with used plane values rapidly rising, that calculation is changing as we speak.

Here are the primary roles the chameleon that is the GI 275 can play.

Primary Attitude Indicator 

When serving as, to use Garmin’s term, a primary attitude indicator, the GI 275 offers a number of upgrades over any analog gauge, as well as a host of improvements over the company’s popular G5 instrument. For one thing, you get rid of the vacuum-powered gyro, which is a huge safety improvement. You also get all kinds of added features that no analog gauge ever dreamed of having.

These include:

Display of altitude, airspeed and heading on the instrument. It’s all there before your eyes.

Lateral and vertical deviation indications and selected nav source.

There’s also altitude pre-select for autopilot interface when paired with the GFC600.

Heading bug select.

Optional synthetic vision, which overlays a 3D view of the outside world, including traffic, terrain, airport locator tags, obstacle (like towers and high terrain) and more.

Display of flight path marker (when tied with the optional synthetic vision), for immediate reference not to what the gauges say but to where you’re actually headed.

There’s even a built-in VFR GPS, with optional glare shield-mounted antenna that can be driven by the GI 275’s internal battery even in case of an aircraft electrical loss for limited, direct-to guidance from the GI 275 itself.

With the battery installed as part of the setup, it’s got a 60-minute backup battery life, and that’s a conservative figure.

CDI (Course Deviation Indicator) and HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator) 

The GI 275 can be used as a navigation display, using a variety of navigator inputs to display course deviation indications laterally or vertically (for glideslope on ILS or RNAV approaches), all while having the capability of displaying additional data, such as moving map, weather, terrain and traffic.

Primary Engine Display 

When used as a display of engine information for normally aspirated or turbocharged piston engines from Continental and Lycoming four- or six-cylinder engines, the GI 275 can display RPM, manifold pressure, cylinder head temperature, exhaust gas temperature, turbine inlet temperature and more, including leaning assist, while also issuing alerts for exceedances, as allowed for and detailed in the handbook.

Multifunction Display (MFD)

The GI 275 can, when configured and installed to do so, display, in Garmin’s words, “additional page functions and features beyond a traditional flight instrument,” though what there is about this instrument in any regard that doesn’t go beyond a traditional flight instrument is hard to say. Regardless, when it’s set up as an MFD, the GI 275 can:

Act as a moving map, with displays of terrain, traffic, weather, airways, airspace information and more.

Serve as a dedicated traffic display when paired with a Garmin GTX 345, GNX 375 and GTS 800 series traffic hardware. It will display Garmin’s cool relative traffic motion display it calls TargetTrend. It also supports a number of third-party traffic sensors.

Display Garmin’s SafeTaxi utility.

Act as a display of terrain with color-coded shading to show areas of high terrain around the flight and with audible and visual alerts.

Display Sirius XM and FIS-B (ADS-B) weather.

Show pertinent airport information, like frequencies, runway lengths and more.

Act as a radar altimeter display when paired with the GRA 55/5500 units.

Replace the primary attitude indicator in the Garmin GFC 600, GFC 500 and a variety of third-party units, as well.

Working With The GI 275

One of the biggest wonders of the GI 275 is that, despite its small size, it’s easy to see, interpret and use.  The display is super sharp, as you can see in the accompanying photographs, and the screen, which takes up the entire bezel, is also very bright. Things that seem as though they might be difficult to see and do with it in fact are neither. It’s easy to distinguish one traffic target from the next, for instance, or to read details on the map.

Just as importantly, if not more so, Garmin has nailed the symbology on these instruments, so even when there’s a lot going on, such as on the primary attitude instrument, which displays about a dozen different things simultaneously, not only is it possible, but it’s easy to pick out just the thing you’re looking for.

It’s also no chore to control the instruments, though Garmin had to get creative to make that happen, using a combination of knobs and touchscreen gestures to allow pilots to quickly and accurately work with the display. To go from page to page, you just use the outer concentric ring, and to make selections and enter values, you use the inner knob. Touch control isn’t only possible but necessary for pilots to use in order to select the function they’re aiming to control. This could be inputting a target altitude. Touch the preselect field, which activates it, and then use the inner knob to select the target altitude. In other cases, you can use classic gestures, like pinch to zoom and panning, which you do with a single finger.

There are a couple of gestures that are new to Garmin avionics, including the long touch, analogous to a knob press, to do things like sync to standard barometric pressure. There’s also a new swipe gesture you can use to immediately pull up pop-up menus, which you can also access with a button push. Menus, by the way, are placed on the display in a way that makes sense for that particular instrument. None of these gestures, of course, are Garmin inventions. If you use a smartphone or any one of a hundred other modern electronic devices, navigating around the GI 275 will likely be second nature.

That’s an important point, because before long there will be a lot of GI 275s in the fleet, and this is not entirely because they’re cool, though they definitely are, but also because it will be more cost-effective in many cases for owners to replace aging instruments with a GI 275 than it would be for them to fix the legacy gauge.

When the panel welcomes a new instrument, pilots get all kinds of safety benefits, including saying buh-bye to failure-prone vacuum-powered instruments (and perhaps the vacuum system itself—how cool would that be?). This is in addition to greater reliability, capability—look again at that primary display with synthetic vision—and usability.

Cost of the GI 275 will vary depending on what role it fills. A basic (but still very capable) CDI or MFD display sells for just $3,195. Other displays, all of which have additional hardware, sell for just a few or several hundreds of dollars more. A primary display (or a paired reversionary mate) has built-in AHRS and air data and goes for either $3,995 or $4,995, depending on whether it also supports an autopilot. Although it was at launch only compatible with the company’s G5 flight instrument, last October Garmin announced that it could now pair with the G5, as well. The inclusion in the GI 275 of an analog-to-digital converter, needed by many legacy autopilots that rely on old data formats, will sweeten the deal, as legacy converters can be hard to find and expensive to repair or replace.

So this is happening, and you can expect to see the GI 275 in a plane near you, and soon. Garmin has been shipping the units for more than a month as of this writing, and they’re selling, no surprise, very briskly. And, as I mentioned, the market is huge. According to Garmin, its AML list includes more than 1,000 general aviation and business aircraft, from light singles from Cessna and Piper up to pressurized twins, like the Mitsubishi MU-2. How many GI 275s will Garmin sell over the next few years? I will only venture to say that it will be a really big number.

Why? Well, in the original release of the GI 275, Garmin’s VP of aviation sales and marketing, Carl Wolf, might have said it all: “If it’s round and in their panels, pilots can likely replace it with the GI 275 to receive modern flight display features and benefits in a powerful yet compact touchscreen flight instrument.”

And the addition of such instruments will go a long way toward modernizing existing aircraft and breathing new life into an aging fleet, which at this point desperately needs just such an addition of smart, affordable technology to go with a fleet full of airframes and engines that will, for the foreseeable future, keep on keeping on.

The post Garmin GI 275: Flight Instrument Revolution appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

Pilots and the aviation community are recognizing the safety benefits of Angle Of Attack (AOA) indicators, which provide a visual display of the AOA, or the angle between the chord of the airfoil and the relative wind. An AOA indicator’s ability to present an incipient stall visually, and a recent spate of accidents AOAs might have helped prevent, led the FAA last year to ease the pathway to certification for AOA products, and several manufacturers have since introduced theirs. Aspen Avionics previewed an AOA display for its Evolution primary flight and multifunction display screens during Sun ‘n Fun this year. Not a moment too soon for James Buck, who formerly flew Beechcraft T-34Cs as a Marine Corp flight instructor. “In the military, AOA in the fixed-wing community is part of normal life,” said Buck, now Aspen’s director of flight operations. “I was shocked when I started flying as a civilian and no one in GA used it.”

We met Buck at Plant City Airport, a few miles west of Lakeland, to see Aspen’s AOA in operation in the company’s Cirrus SR22. Buck explained some of AOA’s features in the Plant City Airport Services offices before the flight. One benefit for Aspen’s customers: No additional hardware or modifications are needed. The Evolution AOA indicator calculates angle of attack from the flight envelope data received from the air data computer and attitude heading reference system (AHRS) integrated in the Evolution 1000 PFD or Evolution 1000 MFD, and a certified GPS; users just update their software. Even more important, said Buck: Aspen’s display shows AOA in both flaps up and flaps down configurations, as do military systems, whereas other units on the GA market show only one value, calculated for either flaps up, down, or somewhere intermediate. The values between clean and landing configurations can differ markedly, so the angle-of-attack indication can’t always be accurate in such systems, Buck noted.

To install the AOA software, an Aspen dealer upgrades the Evolution with an SD card reader. Then, values for the aircraft’s gross weight, empty weight, cruise speed, maneuvering speed and short-field approach speed are fed in on the ground. Finally, a calibration flight in smooth air is performed. After engaging the calibration mode, fly the aircraft straight and level at cruise speed for 45 seconds. Engage the calibration mode again and fly at maneuvering speed for 2.5 minutes. Engage a third time and fly the minimum approach speed for 45 seconds. “It literally takes less than ten minutes on a nice, smooth day,” said Buck. If any errors occur, the system will provide an error message and the flight segment can be repeated.

The software in Aspen’s Cirrus was upgraded, configured and ready to go, so we flew out to open airspace a few miles south. Aspen’s Cirrus is outfitted with an Evolution 2500 multi-display system, consisting of an MFD500 on the left, a PFD1000 in the center, and on the right, an MFD1000 with a reversionary PFD mode. The AOA can be displayed on either one-half or one-third screen windows on the MFD, or as a smaller indicator superimposed on the PFD.

The AOA display appears as two parallel, vertical bars of blue, green, yellow and then red, from bottom to top. (Buck said Aspen is still finalizing the AOA’s graphical presentation.) The bar on the left displays the flaps up AOA, flaps down is on the right. It’s up to you as the pilot to know which one you should be paying attention to, based on the aircraft’s configuration.

Aspen Avionics previewed an AOA display for its Evolution primary flight and multifunction display screens during Sun ‘n Fun this year. One benefit for Aspen’s customers: No additional hardware or modifications are needed.

We flew banks at 30, 45 and 60 degrees, watching the AOA indicators advance higher the steeper the angle. Simply seeing the differences in indications in the two configurations displayed simultaneously, while banking either clean or with flaps, was illuminating. Whenever we got near the red on the indicator for the appropriate configuration, the stall horn sounded. “If you calibrate the aircraft correctly, the stall warning horn and the red/yellow band are kind of coincident,” Buck said.

The message was clear, if not loud: It’s better to see the approaching stall, and lower the nose or reduce the bank, before the stall horn goes off and catches you by surprise.

It’s better to see the approaching stall, and lower the nose or reduce the bank, before the stall horn goes off and catches you by surprise.

The display is pilot selectable and can be turned off when not needed, for example in cruise flight. Additionally, the PFD’s AOA display currently has an off and auto, rather than on, mode; in auto, the display disappears when airspeed exceeds 100 knots.

We did some circuits back at the airport where Buck showcased other benefits: If you’re doing a go around, when is it safe to retract your flaps? Now you definitely know, because you can see the angle of attack for a clean configuration even when the flaps are down. And a finer point: managing lift isn’t just about keeping the aircraft from stalling. If you’re operating out of short fields, you don’t want excess lift when you’re coming over the numbers. An AOA will help you fly slow speeds more precisely as well as more safely. To maximize those benefits, I’d want on AOA indicator that displayed both ends of the configuration envelope.

The software for the Aspen’s Integrated Angle of Attack Indicator is $1,995. Visit aspenavionics.com for more information.

The post Aspen Avionics Angle Of Attack appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

Dynon’s D1 is a portable GPS-based Primary Flight Display that runs on battery power.

Twenty-first-century private pilots benefit enormously from technologies like GPS, WAAS and iPads. Any pilot flying these days without portable navigation and electronic charting is very much behind the times. Yet, a majority of the airplanes flown by those pilots still feature 20th-century “steam gauge” flight instruments. And while we all may look longingly at the amazing features offered by the latest glass panels, retrofitting that kind of equipment in old airplanes costs thousands to tens of thousands of dollars—in some cases, more than the airframe is worth!

Now Dynon, a vendor that sells mainly in the experimental and light-sport market, provides an alternative: The $1,425 D1 Pocket Panel puts a fully functional primary flight display (PFD) within reach of pilots of literally any airplane ever made—even those without a built-in electrical system. There’s just one catch: It’s not certified and thus can’t legally replace any required instruments. Instead, it supplements them, much like a portable GPS can supplement built-in navigation instruments.

Physically, the D1 is a 3.3×3.5×1.1-inch box, the top of which is mostly taken up by a bright 3.5-inch diagonal LCD display. It has a card slot for Secure Digital (SD) data-storage cards, a USB port, sockets for an external GPS antenna and power, two buttons and a rocker switch. Like other uncertified portable devices, the D1 can’t be permanently mounted in an airplane, but Dynon offers several clever mounting options, including a suction-cup mount and a clever clip mount that works in any empty 3.5-inch instrument hole, requiring no tools to install or remove—both mounts are included (along with an external GPS antenna and 12-volt power plug) in the box, so there’s nothing more to buy.

Once the D1 is mounted, you can power it up using one of the buttons on top of the bezel—at which point, you’ll see Dynon’s logo and disclaimer text warning that the unit isn’t certified or a legal replacement for conventional flight instruments. Pressing the side rocker switch displays a red X (to show that the instrument is inoperative) and a prompt to press the button again to enter alignment mode, which lets you adjust the D1 display for the pitch and roll attitude of your aircraft. You may want to do that again in flight, as I found that nose level on the ground and in the air were very different.

In flight, the D1 is little short of amazing: Roll and pitch displays perfectly match those from the mechanical attitude indicator, and the inclinometer matches the skid ball on the turn coordinator. The unit displays GPS-based altitude, groundspeed, and track where a certificated PFD would show barometric altitude, airspeed and heading. On the calm day when I tested the unit, this resulted in displayed altitude about 100 feet high, but the speed and track were dead on. The unit also provides visual indications of turn rate and climb/descent. One limitation: The unit isn’t designed for aerobatic use—it’s limited to angular rates of 150 degrees per second, but will automatically recover after a few seconds of straight and level flight.

An instrument approach can be flown using it (and cross-checking altitude with the mechanical altimeter) at least as precisely as using conventional round-gauge flight instruments, and far more safely than I’d be able to do on partial panel after a vacuum failure. The built-in battery (which offers approximately four hours operation, according to Dynon) makes the unit immune to electrical failures.

Besides functioning as an effective backup instrument, the D1 also provides an inexpensive way for pilots to familiarize themselves with PFD symbology and operation, which will become increasingly important as more airplanes are built with (or upgraded to) glass panels. And if there’s a spare 3.5-inch instrument hold on the passenger side, a D1 will offer the copilot (or flight instructor) what amounts to state-of-the-art flight instrumentation.

I want to compliment Dynon for bucking the trend toward only providing electronic documentation—the D1 comes with a 40-page printed pilot’s user guide, which I found invaluable in getting the unit up and running.

For more information, visit www.dynonavionics.com.

The post Dynon D1 Pocket Panel appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

An Aspen Avionics installation on Bill Fanning’s 1980 BE-36 Bonanza

I was talking to my airline-pilot friend the other day. Though he came through the ranks of general aviation via an accelerated training program, he no longer stays close to GA in terms of the latest developments. He hasn’t been out of GA for very long, but as far as the developments he’s missed, nothing comes close to the strides made in avionics over the last few years.

It was fun watching my friend’s eyes widen as I told him about innovations like enhanced vision systems (EVS) that use thermal-imaging cameras to capture an infrared view of a pilot’s surroundings and display them on a screen. I told him about the latest touch-screen GPS units and the unmatched efficiency of using digital charts in the cockpit instead of the paper ones he’s used to. We talked about electronic circuit- breaker systems, the latest graphical engine- management displays and the incredible “slide-in” modular flight displays and integrated flight decks that are available.
But the best part was telling him that all these things are available as relatively inexpensive (ok, not all of them) after-market products. I relayed the story of a pilot I know with a biplane that has multiple GPS units, real-time weather, a Garmin G600 glass cockpit and an all-digital instrument and audio panel. He just shook his head in amazement. All he could muster was, “I can’t believe it because we don’t have half of that stuff in our jet cockpits!”

All he could muster was, I can’t believe it because we don’t have half of that stuff in our jet cockpits!”

The fact is that retrofitting airplanes with advanced capabilities isn’t only possible but is becoming the norm rather than the exception. By adding new components, owners of older airplanes can keep up with technology, add to safety and situational awareness and even increase performance. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Even in my own little Great Lakes biplane, we’ve added multiple GPS systems, a digital engine analyzer and a new digital audio panel so we can listen to our MP3 player while cruising along above the countryside.

But with so many options and so many retrofit devices and avionics facilities out there, how do you know what you need? The answer is really based on the pilot, the mission (the real one, not the “hoped-for” one) and the budget. A retrofit can be something as simple as adding an engine-management instrument or traffic-advisory system, or can stretch into adding a three-panel glass-integrated flight deck with more capability than the Airbus flying far above you.

Garmin G600 in a Cirrus SR22

Information Is Power
Knowing what your engine is doing is probably one of the most important considerations in retrofit avionics. While a fancy navigator can get you through any weather imaginable, it won’t do you much good if your engine quits in the soup. A good place to start is with some type of engine analyzer or engine-management system. The great thing is that the price can go from quite reasonable for a basic EGT/CHT instrument, to a few thousand dollars for the whiz-bang, color-filled, bar-graph engine display. But what counts is knowing the health of your engine at all times. That knowledge establishes a great foundation for upgrading the rest of your airplane. Starting with that aspect is a relatively inexpensive upgrade with minimal hassles.

Sagem and Garmin avionics on a Cessna 182

To Glass Or Not To Glass
Glass cockpits have certainly become the darling of the aviation world. There are lots of excellent choices for retrofit here, including the beautifully modular approach that allows you to slide the new glass unit into existing panel space. But you don’t have to go crazy to realize the benefits of the glass-cockpit world. Many of the manufacturers listed here offer mix-and-match components so you can go from a basic glass-panel display to clean up your panel, all the way to a fully instrument-certified integrated flight deck. There’s nothing wrong with flying on steam gauges and enhancing your panel a little at a time.

Avidyne EX600

The Sound Of Music
One area in avionics retrofit that has really come a long way is the audio panel and intercom. For not too much money, pilots can retrofit their older airplane with a newer audio panel. One huge benefit of even the most basic new audio panels is that they can accommodate MP3 players (like iPods) so you and your passengers can enjoy music as you fly. If you’ve never experienced flying while listening to your favorite music from a good audio panel, you’re really missing one of the great sensory pleasures of aviating. A new audio panel could include a new com radio with modern efficiency, power, frequency response and reliability. The improved sound and greater clarity is a safety boon for any pilot.

Bendix/King KFD 840

Mother Nature And Crowded Skies
Next up on the retrofit-avionics list is to add one of several panel-mount weather-information systems. Nothing adds to safety like knowing what to expect, and with today’s near-instantaneous weather information availability, having the latest weather in your cockpit could save your life. A portable receiver and a subscription to one of the satellite weather reporting systems like XM is a reasonably priced way to add to your knowledge of flight conditions before the flight. Along the same lines, traffic information becomes dispensable in certain areas of the country. Like real-time weather, knowing what traffic around you is doing is one of the greatest developments in the avionics field. Again, portable receivers and basic panel-mount displays add a lot of safety and confidence each time you fly.

Forward Vision, based in Russell, Pa., makes the thermal-imaging cameras and systems used in enhanced vision systems. The company is the exclusive distributor of the EVS-100 and EVS-600 product line. EVS integrates in several glass-cockpit systems, both fixed and portable.

The Fun Stuff
If your budget is flexible and you want to go for the big-ticket items, 3D synthetic vision and EVS systems are some of the coolest things to come along in GA in a long time. It’s comforting to watch the display on a pitch-black night and be totally confident in knowing what’s in front, over and under you. Retrofitting your aircraft with one of these advanced, vision-enhancing systems is an investment in your safety. Prices have come down as the technology has matured, so it will soon be within reach of more pilots.

Retrofit 101
By looking at avionics retrofits in small pieces, it makes the whole a bit easier to swallow. Sure, adding new components will cost money, but you would be surprised how valuable that added situational awareness is. The list in this article includes some of the best-known and popular avionics-retrofit manufacturers and service facilities. If you’re considering getting an upgrade, before your make your purchase, take a look at all of the options available for aftermarket products. I especially love my engine analyzer when I’m out over the Pacific Ocean, not within gliding distance of anything, and I can see my healthy engine purring away.

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The 46126 EGT/CHT Meter from Alcor Inc.

No matter how modern an airplane’s engines and systems are, predictable power is ultimately a pilot’s personal responsibility. We rely on engine instrumentation to ensure safe flight, but we also like to optimize engine operations (for example, speed, distance or lifetime economy). The right information, reliably transmitted and interpreted, can save money and time, and prevent awkward situations.

When it’s time to evaluate a new panel or decide on a new airplane, the availability, quality and clarity of the information from the engine bay(s) will play an important part. Whether you’re replacing vintage “steam gauges” with the newest of the genre, or you’re looking for “full auto” engine controls and monitoring systems to match, modern manufacturers are providing the best information ever available.

Save gas. Avoid shock cooling. Lower your maintenance costs. Log your aircraft’s history. Balance your propeller. Spot trouble before it becomes catastrophic. Save weight and panel space while getting better information. Today’s engine analyzers can do things that well-equipped shops couldn’t do just a few years ago—and they can do it on the fly, using common software and common storage media. Trend monitoring, once the province of the heavy players, is now in our hands.

There are three technologies available to help us: traditional, dedicated gauges; stand-alone engine analyzers; and integrated engine instruments that are part of a flight deck. As always, anytime you’re upgrading, check with the individual manufacturers for the latest information on TSO/PMA status and required STCs.

The G3 from Insight Instruments.	The EDM-800 from J.P. Instruments.

TRADITIONAL, DEDICATED GAUGES
The low cost, rugged construction, ready compatibility and classic look of traditional gauges mean that they’ll be around for decades.

Alcor Inc.
Alcor has had a great reputation over the past 50 years, during which time the company patented the EGT thermocouple, allowing pilots to safely adjust the fuel-air mixture for optimum performance or economy. A logical pick when an authentic and functional restoration is in your plans, Alcor’s CHT and EGT instruments and probes (in both grounded and insulated versions) are an industry standard. In fact, Alcor’s single, dual and mixed (CHT/EGT) instruments, in 2.25-inch and 3.125-inch sizes, fill more piston-engine airplane panels worldwide than any other brand. Prices are in the $500 range. Learn more at www.alcorinc.com.

The MVP-50P from Electronics International.

STAND-ALONE ENGINE ANALYZERS
Stand-alone analyzers offer extremely comprehensive information. Their data capture and logging, as well as their ability to diagnose specific parameters, balance well with their moderate cost and pilot-friendliness.

Electronics International Inc.
The MVP-50P is a newly TSO’d and certified engine analyzer/system monitor that shows programmable critical engine parameters with audio and visual limit warnings, including engine hours, rpm, manifold pressure and oil temp and pressure. It can also monitor the positions of flaps, trim, time and more than a dozen other parameters (including whether your door/canopy is open, plus others that you program). Data loads through a USB port and can be viewed on dedicated EGTrends (see the sidebar in this article) or Microsoft Excel software. Additional screen displays allow you to build customized checklists and store general information, flight plans, the POH and a myriad of other data. Existing customers can send in their existing MVP and get a free software upgrade to make it TSO’d. The two-pound device costs about $4,500. Learn more at www.buy-ei.com.

The AuRACLE CRM2100 from Xerion Avionix.

Insight Instruments
The original GEM (graphic engine monitor) has had countless followers since its introduction in 1979, and the GEM Series G3 will replace it and expand its function a hundredfold. The full-color G3 retains all the functions of the GEM 602/603/610, but adds significant new capabilities, including lifetime data logging of all traditional parameters as well as engine vibration, propeller balance, landing shocks and internal solid-state G-sensors. By interfacing with your GPS, the G3 allows tracking of routes and winds aloft. Easy updates and data logging via an SD card enable future upgrades over the Internet, with no special software required to read the data. You’ll see a display of rpm, manifold pressure, CHT, EGT, peaks and warnings, oil temp and pressure, fuel flow, OAT and voltage. The G3 fits in a 2.25-inch hole and projects roughly four inches behind the panel, providing for a compact installation. The six-cylinder model (four- and nine-cylinder versions are also offered) markets for $3,200, including probes. GEM trade-up allowances are available. Learn more at www.insightavionics.com.

J.P. Instruments
The EDM-700 and EDM-800 are high-performance engine analyzers that have had years of development and still hold a large piece of the market, due to their robust construction, full information and unique features. J.P. Instruments President Joe Polizzotto says, “You want all cylinders on the lean side, but not too far, and the EDM shows each cylinder as it goes over peak EGT. We fly our Mooney 231 at 10 gph and 180 knots from Scottsbluff, Neb., to Los Angeles, Calif., on one tank.” The pilot-friendly programming is evident in the clear monochromatic display. Data logging is automatic and its interval is adjustable; it’s enhanced through free EzTrends software. The 800 is a “loaded” version of the 700—oil temperature is the only option left. The six-cylinder EDM-800 retails for $3,995. Learn more at www.jpinstruments.com.

Avidyne’s EMax on the FlightMax Entegra EX500.

Xerion Avionix
At Sun ‘n Fun 2008, Xerion introduced its AuRACLE CRM2120, the twin version of the screamingly successful CRM2100 and CRM2101 graphic monitors. The entire CRM series uses a unique display to put a lot of information comprehensibly on a small screen: rpm, manifold pressure, CHT, EGT, fuel flow, OAT, volts and amps, calculated horsepower and a number of user-programmed functions. The Xerion AuRACLE is certified for all four- and six-cylinder Beech Bonanza, Cessna and Piper aircraft. One of Xerion’s goals is to replace as many old systems as possible while aggressively chasing the OEM market. (Its plug-compatible CRM2101, for instance, directly replaces the J.P.I. EDM-700 while adding other functions.) The CRM2120 isn’t simply a “double” CRM2100; its twin screens can function independently, be flip-flopped or even be combined at the pilot’s command. The four-cylinder CRM2100 costs $6,995, and the six-cylinder version costs $7,495. If you’re upgrading systems that are already on board and compatible, reduce those prices to $5,650 and $5,926, respectively, for the CRM2101. At this writing, prices for the CRM2120 are still in the works. Learn more at www.xerionavionix.com.

ANALYZERS INTEGRATED INTO FLIGHT DECK SYSTEMS
As modern cockpits increasingly move to a “flight deck” approach, integrated engine analyzers are becoming increasingly popular.

Avidyne
Avidyne’s Entegra flight deck incorporates the EMax engine analyzer, which can be displayed full-screen on its EX5000 MFD. During flight, engine parameters are displayed in the upper-left corner of the MFD; a full-screen look remains instantly available. Even as engine parameters (rpm, manifold pressure, percent power, oil temp and pressure, EGT, CHT, OAT and buss voltage) are displayed, the “fuel totalizer” monitors fuel flow, computing nmpg, fuel remaining, fuel-to-waypoint and fuel-to-destination. “Lean assist” mode announces when you lean for “best power” or “best economy,” and when “peak EGT” is reached by the first cylinder. (The display then changes color from green to blue, and shows actual peak EGT.) EMax logs all engine data, which is downloaded through a USB port. Learn more at www.avidyne.com.

Engine data as it appears on the Garmin G1000.

Garmin
Garmin’s G1000 glass panel includes full-function engine analyzer capability and, as such, offers a ton of engine-related information on a slice of its 10.4-inch MFD (on the 900X); the G1000 is also available in 12- and 15-inch screens. Included are an all-cylinder (cyclable with a soft key) graphical EGT with a “lean assist” function; cyclable, all-cylinder CHT; and alternator and battery information. In this same area, the pilot gets fuel flow and level information. The screen can be instantly configured to display more or less detail. The future doesn’t rule out data-logging capabilities, but for now, the Garmin flight decks don’t keep track of engine parameters in any user-available way. Learn more at www.garmin.com.

The SmartDeck from L-3 Communications.

L-3 Communications
L-3’s SmartDeck presents one of the most integrated flight deck solutions in general aviation, but it’s not yet available in any OEM or add-on application. On the MFD, the usual data—all-cylinder EGT and CHT, rpm, manifold pressure and oil temp and pressure—are augmented by percent power and fuel flow, along with electric system information. L-3 has a unique “trend monitor,” as well: the previous 10 minutes of oil pressure or engine temperatures are continuously displayed. This allows the pilot to adjust to in-flight changes, allowing a more educated judgment call while easing that momentary shock you always get when you can’t remember, for certain, what the values were during your last scan. Like the Garmin G1000, the L-3 SmartDeck displays, but doesn’t log engine data for historical or diagnostic purposes. Learn more at www.l-3com.com.

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