“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.

Barons also will benefit from yaw damper and approach capability when the autopilot is coupled with a compatible third-party IFR navigation unit, when equipped with SkyView HDX and autopilot combo.

“We’re excited to expand the SkyView HDX and Dynon’s autopilot approval into the Beechcraft Baron series,” said Michael Schofield, Dynon’s director of marketing.

As an add-on to the SkyView HDX system, pilots can add the three-axis autopilot starting at a list price of $11,192 for Barons, including all hardware and servo harnesses required for the installation. Pilots may also choose the SkyView autopilot control panel at $664, and the knob control panel at $335, for the ability to adjust the functions most often modified when using the autopilot, like altitude, heading, track, and altimeter setting.

READ MORE: Dyson Gets Autopilot Approval for Beechcraft Model 36

You can find and install Dynon Certified products—including this autopilot approval—at any Dynon authorized installation center. The company also indicated that additional autopilot approvals are in progress for certain Mooney M20s and Beechcraft Debonair 33s. Electric trim and autopilot auto-trim can also be installed on Dynon autopilot-equipped models.

Trim motor control and autopilot auto-trim can now be had for most of the Dynon Certified autopilot installations that have electric trim motors installed. Before, this feature was only found on a few select trim systems. The company has confirmed that the restrictions have been removed, so now auto-trim can be used in all Dynon autopilot-equipped Cessna 182s, Beechcraft 35s and 36s, Piper Senecas, and Beechcraft Baron 58s.

The post FAA Approval Granted for Dynon’s Certified SkyView HDX and Autopilot appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

The “multi-function” part? The Sentry Plus is also a carbon monoxide detector, a Wi-Fi router, a multi-constellation global positioning receiver, and an inflight track logger. It also has built-in AHRS, which supports synthetic vision emergency attitude on the iPad and a display of G-forces—yes, it’s a G-meter, too.

While the Sentry Plus is designed to integrate with your iPad, the built-in display will provide real-time system status, as well as Carbon Monoxide conditions, with dangerous CO levels annunciated on the display. Additionally, the integrated flight data recorder with G meter, like what is found in many aerobatic airplanes, will keep you appraised of G Loads as they happen. And with its up to 18-hour battery life, the Plus is a tempting step-up product for current Stratus owners or those just getting into the ADS-B world.

Just its global positioning receiver might be reason enough for some to step up. The multi-constellation receiver is virtually jam-proof, according to the manufacturer, offering accuracy to within 1 meter. For backup purposes, if the US GPS is jammed, the built-in receiver will switch to the European Galileo satellite constellation without manual intervention.

The Sentry Plus, which goes for $799, is available at Sporty’s Pilot Shop.

The post Sentry Plus ADS-B (And Much More) Debuts 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.

Bike In A Bag

The sporty pakiT folding bike is a small and light bike that will fit into most baggage compartments easily. It’s so small that it fits neatly into a large backpack when folded up, a process that the maker says takes as little as 20 seconds. How light is it? Very. It tips the scales starting at just 22.5 pounds, and its small footprint (38x24x10 inches when folded, with a 16-inch wheel) is just the ticket to fitting it through that Bonanza baggage door, not to mention for taking in the trunk of a car or on a train for cruising around a destination city.

Price: Starts at $1,695. Available at www.bikefriday.com.

Sentry ADS-B Receiver For ForeFlight

Sentry is a compact, affordable ADS-B receiver made specifically for ForeFlight that offers inflight weather and traffic, AHRS and internal WAAS GPS. It has a long battery life (up to 12 hours), onboard storage for weather replay, and a CO sensor with an alarm system for added safety. With ForeFlight’s Cockpit Charging feature, Sentry can support up to five devices. Suction cups for mounting make transferring from plane to plane easy.

Price: $499. Available at www.sportys.com.

Leather Pilot Log

This classic leather pilot log from Rustico is for pilots looking to upgrade their current folio.

It comes refillable with an ASA logbook inside and can be personalized. Choose from three sizes (small/standard, medium and large/master) and a range of seven colors, from natural to burgundy. 

Price: $79. Available at www.rustico.com.

iPad Flight Desk

Flight Outfitters’ Deluxe iPad Flight Desk combines a universal kneeboard design with a custom organizer case. The rigid kneeboard is a secure surface with three sizes of silicon holders to accommodate iPads, iPad Minis and most phones, either in portrait or landscape modes. There are three pockets with straps to put charging cables in order. Loops can hold a stylus and pen, and you can use an included clipboard inside or outside the case. 

Price: $99.95. Available at www.sportys.com.

Pilot Stuff Tee

Flight Outfitters’ pilot-themed tee in vintage blue answers the age-old question, “So, what do you do all day?” Any aviation fan can wear the shirt, made of super-soft 50/50 cotton, to go flying, to the next airshow, or to simply show off their love of all things plane at the local airport. 

Price: $24.95. Available at www.aircraftspruce.com.

A Shoe Just For Pilots

Lift Aviation’s Air Boss Flight Shoe has an aviation-specific engineered heel designed to lower friction against the cockpit floor. It has the lightweight, thin sole of a driving shoe with added rigidity in the heel for mobility and support while you fly. Its breathable and microbial OrthoLite insoles promise comfort during long hauls, and its oil- and slip-resistant outsoles offer comfort and protection during walkarounds. 

Price: $129. Available at www.mypilotstore.com.

Dual-Purpose Flashlight

Flight Gear’s rugged Rechargeable Flashlight is a multipurpose tool that’s water resistant, has a zoomable spotlight/flood feature in two colors (white and red), and has a USB port to charge your phone. It has a four-light indicator to show you how much charge is still left for use. At only 6.75×1.6 inches, it’s a practical addition to any flight bag.

Price: $49.95. Available at www.sportys.com.

Check out more gear here.

The post An ADS-B Receiver, A Shoe, And More Products For Pilots 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.

What has changed, though, is how we operate these airplanes. Engine monitors offer an all-in-one solution to owners. With old instruments, adjusting the mixture to a lean of peak setting required guesswork and guaranteed nothing; modern instrumentation made it practical. With modern instruments, diagnosing a stuck valve or dead cylinder went from sticking the butt end of a writing pen onto exhaust stacks to see which ones melted the plastic to simply seeing which cylinder’s temperatures are out of whack. A USB thumb drive can now download the data mechanics used to get from pilots trying to explain things that just didn’t seem right.

The JPI EDM900 is JP Instruments’ baseline engine monitor with primary certification, meaning it can replace your existing engine gauges. Other engine monitors with secondary certification are significantly cheaper, but they legally require your existing gauges to remain installed and operational.

For most installations, the EDM900 can replace an aircraft’s entire array of engine gauges—in our evaluation, it replaced the tachometer, manifold pressure and fuel pressure gauges as well as a cluster gauge with fuel quantity, oil temp and pressure, ammeter and single-cylinder CHT. It also replaced an aging JPI EDM700. All the senders are included—and they live firewall-forward. This means that old lines for direct-reading fuel and oil pressure gauges no longer exist behind your instrument panel, where they present a threat of leaks or fire if a line ruptures.

We opted for fuel flow and carburetor temperature indications for use on a Lycoming 0-360-A1D. Our install was fairly straightforward; installation on more complex engines includes allowances for turbochargers, fuel injection and the like. You’ll need your aircraft POH and possibly a copy of the aircraft Type Certificate Data Sheet as you fill in the ranges and limits for your instrumentation—get it right the first time to avoid shipping it back to JPI for reprogramming.

Once installed, the display is easily reconfigurable for gauge placement, so the values you need are where you want them to be. The layout was mostly intuitive as delivered, although we did swap the placement of manifold pressure and tachometer.

The high-resolution color display makes your engine data easy to read, and those who’ve used an older EDM, such as the 700, will find the interface much more user-friendly, having a few more buttons and an on-screen legend. Temperatures for cylinder head temperature and exhaust gas temperature are displayed constantly for all cylinders. Leaning is a breeze with settings for operating lean of peak or rich of peak available. Data downloaded to a USB drive can help your mechanic troubleshoot when something isn’t quite right. Savvy Aviation offers SavvyAnalysis, a free service for you to upload engine data for basic troubleshooting.

In an instrument roughly the size of a cluster gauge it replaced, our EDM900 displays RPM, manifold pressure, all CHT and EGT values, outside air temperature, percentage of horsepower, oil temperature and pressure, fuel pressure, carburetor temperature, fuel levels, volts and amps, fuel used, fuel remaining, time to empty, Hobbs meter and cylinder cool-down rate. That’s a lot of data, but the clarity of the display makes it easy to process—and a remote alarm light draws your attention to any value out of limits.

With optional fuel flow installed, the unit couples nicely to GPS navigators to calculate fuel required and fuel reserve at your destination or next waypoint. When coupled with CIES fuel-level senders, your airplane can become an exception to the old saying about never trusting fuel gauges. You’ll find yourself often knowing within a gallon or 2 what it’ll take to top off as you pull up to the pump, but disclaimers abound about trusting the fuel indications.

The price of the unit is half the battle. The installation can cost as much as the unit itself, leading to quoted installs nearing $10,000. The wiring is not complex, just plentiful, and most A&P mechanics should be able to handle it rather than sending it to an avionics installer. If you’re handy and have a good relationship with an A&P to supervise your work, this is an opportunity to save thousands of dollars as a do-it-yourselfer. The price of the instrument itself is $4,195 and up, depending on the options selected.

Read more Avionics stories here.

The post JPI EDM900: An Engine Monitor That Can Replace Existing Gauges appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

Dynon got the good news earlier this week that it had earned FAA approval for its autopilot in the Beechcraft Model 36 series singles (36, A-36 and B-36 models) as part of its SkyView HDX avionics system. The certification, Dynon told Plane & Pilot, took longer than anticipated as a result of pandemic-related delays, so the approval is welcome news indeed, not only for Dynon but for its customers, too.

The affordable (starting at $4,175) autopilot comes with the needed hardware and servo harnesses. It can be optionally outfitted for three-axis operation, including yaw damper. Dynon’s autopilot can fly instrument approaches when coupled with a compatible IFR-certified navigator. Also available are autopilot control panels to complement the SkyView system.

Because Dynon had included the certification of its software update (version 16.0) with the autopilot certification, a common practice, the company was delayed in shipping some products to dealers and end users, as we reported earlier. The Beech 36 autopilot certification clears the way for Dynon to resume shipments of certificated products immediately, though production and deliveries of its systems for amateur-built aircraft remain impacted by supply chain issues. 

Dynon says that it’s busy at work on getting approvals for its autopilot in the Beechcraft Baron, the Mooney M20 series and the Cessna 182.

The post Dynon Gets Autopilot Approval For Beechcraft Model 36 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.