Retrofit For Singles And Twins

Garmin International Monday announced the G500, a new avionics suite designed specifically for Part 23 Class I and Class II aircraft, which are defined as single and twin-engine piston and turbine engine aircraft under 6,000 pounds.  The G500 is similar in design to Garmin's G600 and incorporates two individual displays - a primary flight display (PFD) and multi-function display (MFD) - in a customized package designed for easy retrofit installation. The G500 communicates and integrates with Garmin's other panel mount products, and provides essential information such as attitude, air data, weather, terrain, and traffic. The G500 was announced at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh.

"The G500 is an affordable way for customers of Part 23 Class I and II aircraft to transform their avionics to all-glass," said Gary Kelley, Garmin's vice president of marketing. "We believe many who purchase a G500 are already flying with WAAS-enabled GNS 400/500 systems, so using the G500 will feel like second nature. Plus, the G500 will be a quantum leap forward for their situational awareness and safety of flight."

The G500 system displays critical flight data in a digital format on dual LCD displays. The bezel framing the G500's PFD and MFD (10"w x 6.7"h) allows for easy installation into the existing instrument panel, and is designed to take the space that is currently occupied by the instrument six-pack (attitude, airspeed, altitude, vertical rate, turn coordinator and directional gyro).  Thanks to the G500's large glass PFD and MFD, pilots can quickly scan the data so that they can stay ahead of the aircraft during all phases of flight. The MFD provides pilots with a clear, concise picture of where they are relative to terrain and airspace, as well as weather and traffic with optional equipment. Garmin's popular SafeTaxi is a standard feature displayed on the MFD, and it features detailed diagrams of over 900 airports so pilots can navigate unfamiliar taxiways with ease. Garmin FliteCharts is also available and it allows pilots to quickly find and view all NACO Departure Procedures (DP), Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs), approach charts, and airport diagrams on the MFD (FliteCharts disables when data is six-months out of date).  Pilots may also select the optional ChartView, an electronic version of Jeppesen's extensive library of charts and airport diagrams.

For the ultimate situational awareness, G500 customers can also install a scaled version of Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT) software as an option. With SVT, pilots will see a 3D depiction of terrain, obstacles and traffic on the PFD so that the avionics panel replicates what pilots would see outside the cockpit on a clear day. Land, water, sky, obstacles, and traffic are clearly differentiated with shading and textures, and they are shown in relative proximity to the aircraft. SVT is scaled specifically for the G500 and it works seamlessly to alert pilots of potential ground hazards by displaying terrain and obstacles which pose a threat to the aircraft with appropriate TAWS-like alert coloring, as well as voice alerts.
Garmin's new GAD 43 autopilot interface is available as an option for the G500.   The GAD 43 adapter is an autopilot interface that allows the AHRS to provide attitude information to the autopilot in place of a gyro-mechanical attitude director indicator (ADI) or remote vertical gyro (VG). The G500 provides course deviation, vertical deviation, heading bug, course pointer and ARINC 429 GPS roll steering information to the autopilot, as appropriate. In addition, if the autopilot does not support ARINC 429 roll steering, the G500 can act like a roll steering converter via the heading input. The GAD 43 can emulate the many existing gyro interfaces and uses far more reliable AHRS data to provide the required attitude, heading, yaw input and baro correction information to the autopilot. This typically allows the system's costly ADI to be replaced on the panel with a far more affordable attitude indicator as the required backup instrumentation.

The G500 also optionally supports Garmin's GWX 68 weather radar system. Active weather depiction and control of the radar array can be done via a dedicated page on the G500's MFD, and allows important tactical information to be in the pilot's primary field of view while freeing up valuable panel space for other avionics.

Near real-time weather is also available as an option via XM WX Satellite Weather (U.S. and Canada only) through Garmin's GDL 69 or GDL 69A. Graphical weather depictions of NEXRAD, METARs, TAFs, TFRs, winds aloft, echo tops, precipitation type at the surface, lightning strikes, storm-cell data, AIRMETs, and SIGMETs can be received and displayed on the G500 so that pilots can make informed navigation decisions. The weather data may be laid directly over navigation and topographic map databases. The G500 also provides a user interface for the more than 170 channels of XM audio. Weather and music requires an XM subscription.

The G500 is expected to receive the FAA's Approved Model List Supplemental Type Certification (AML STC) in the third quarter of 2009, and it is approved to be installed on over 600 different aircraft models.  The G500 includes the GDU 620 display/control unit, GRS 77 AHRS, GDC 74A digital air data computer, GMU 44 tri-axial magnetometer, and GTP 59 temp probe. The G500 is available Q3 2009 for an introductory price of $15,995. The optional SVT and GAD 43 are $4995 and $2995, respectively.

FMI: www.garmin.com