Garmin has confirmed to ANN that it has received FAA Approved Model List Supplemental Type Certification with an Approved Model List (AML STC) for the G600, a revolutionary new avionics suite designed for the retrofit and forward fit avionics market. The FAA’s approval allows the G600 to be installed in 785 different makes and models of normal and utility category aircraft, including twin combustion engine and turbo-prop engine aircraft with a certification weight up to 12,500 lbs.

Garmin’s G600 incorporates two individual displays – a PFD and MFD – in a customized package designed for easy retrofit installation. The G600 combines primary flight data including attitude and air data with navigation, weather, terrain and traffic data displayed in an intuitive pictorial format on dual LCD displays. This large, user-friendly presentation allows pilots to quickly and efficiently scan the data so that they can stay ahead of the aircraft during all phases of flight.

“Some of the biggest benefits of the G600 are very difficult to describe with traditional marketing specs,” said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s vice president of marketing. “Once a pilot sits in a G600 equipped aircraft, they’ll be amazed at the situational awareness that comes from having the PFD and MFD directly in front of the left seat. The G600 is the first time pilots have such a large MFD available in their primary field of view.”

The G600 is designed to integrate with Garmin’s panel mount WAAS GPS products. It replaces traditional mechanical gyroscopic flight instruments with Garmin’s solid state Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) that has superior reliability and accuracy, and features rapid alignment while moving, including in-flight dynamic restarts. The PFD display increases the pilot’s attitude indication by over 50 percent over a traditional 3-inch attitude indicator. The system is certified to interface with most general aviation autopilots acting as a navigation source selector and providing GPS horizontal steering data enabling the autopilot to fly arcs, procedure turns, and holding patterns. Additional features like altitude pre-selector and flight director are available in a select number of autopilots.

The G600’s size (10”w x 6.7”h) allows for easy installation into the existing instrument panel in most aircraft. The system is designed to take the space that is currently occupied by the basic “T” or six-pack of instruments (attitude, airspeed, altitude, vertical speed, turn coordinator and directional gyro). The MFD provides pilots with a clear, concise picture of where they are relative to terrain, airspace, weather, and traffic. Garmin’s popular SafeTaxi® is a standard feature displayed on the MFD. SafeTaxi provides pilots with detailed diagrams of over 850 airports so they can navigate unfamiliar taxiways with ease. This feature identifies runways, taxiways, and structures, and are geo-referenced to the aircraft’s exact position on the field. Garmin FliteCharts® is also standard 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. Pilots may also select the optional ChartView, an electronic version of Jeppesen’s extensive library of charts and airport diagrams.

Datalink weather is also available as an option via XM WX Satellite Weather™ (U.S. 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 G600 so that pilots can make informed navigation decisions. The weather data may be overlaid on map databases. The G600 also provides a user interface for the more than 170 channels of XM audio.

The G600 is available now at a suggested retail price of $29,995. It includes the GDU 620 display/control unit, GRS 77 AHRS, GDC 74A digital air data computer, GMU 44 tri-axial magnetometer, GTP 59 temp probe, and the required leveling brackets.

FMI: www.garmin.com