From Mobile Phone Applications to Full Glass Cockpits
By Chris Batcheller
It's hard to believe
that we've been playing with GPS technology for 20 years, but maybe
even more surprising is how far the technology has come in such a
short time. Garmin is using AirVenture 2009 to celebrate 20 years
of helping people find their way from point 'A' to point 'B', and
the company continues to invest in their line of aviation products,
according to Gary Kelley, Garmin's vice president of marketing.
To mark the 20th anniversary, Kelly announced that Garmin has
delivered 100 thousand of their GNS 400/500 series products. "Since
our inception 20 years ago, we have endeavored to design quality
products that are known for their innovation and reliability. We
are very thankful for every loyal customer who has helped us reach
this tremendous milestone, and we are committed to serving them for
years to come," he said.
Garmin is developing an IPhone version of it’s Pilot
MyCast. This application will bring you Aviation Weather and Data
including, NEXRAD Loops, METARs, TAFs, Weather Maps, Satellite
Loops, Lightning, AOPA Airport Directory and NOTAMs. The
application also brings flight planning and flight filing
functionality. The expected street price is $99.95 annually
and the product is expected in September 2009.
Garmin has also made some enhancements to their V.8 for all
phones. These include Airport Diagrams, File SIDs &
STARs, File Victor and Jet Airways, METAR and TAF “bubble
map”, Displays current and predicted weather in a pictorial
format. The cost is $9.95 per month and there is no
additional cost for current customers.
So many displays, and so little time! Garmin is developing
a wide range of products to meet customer demands, but the variety
can be overwhelming. This article will discuss three of
Garmin’s glass panel offerings. The G3X is targeted at
the experimental market and is designed to allow you to add
components and panels as time and budget allow. The G500 is a
new product that is being introduced and it is being targeted at
airplanes under 6000 lbs in the certified and experimental
category. The current G600 product line is for certified and
experimental aircraft up to 12,500 lbs.
The G3X is currently in development. Using the building
block approach you can build your avionics to meet your current and
future needs. The G3X will support a single or up to three
displays. With 2 or more displays, the G3X will have the
reversionary mode feature just like the G1000. You can see
the G3X here at Oshkosh as units are installed in several aircraft
including Flight Design – MC, Gobosh – G700S,
StingSport – S3, Tecnam – P92 Eaglet, Avionics Systems
LLC and Steinair.
Garmin has continued development of the G600. Now shipping
is SVT (Synthetic Vision Technology) for the G600. SVT is
scaled for the G600, and highway in the sky is not available.
They have also added the GWX68 weather radar interface, new winds
aloft depiction and a new pop-up data field. The new GAD43
autopilot adapter is now shipping and this will allow you to
eliminate the standard size attitude indicator and replace it with
a 2” standby unit. Garmin also announced that existing
G600 customers can get SVT free, and a ½ price GAD43
autopilot adapter.
Garmin introduced their G500 this morning. Garmin quotes
the G500 as “a lower-cost alternative to the G600, designed
specifically for Part 23 Class 1 and Class 2aircraft (most singles
or twins under 6,000 lbs)“. It’s a compact unit
with a PFT on the left side and an MFD on the right. Like
it’s bigger brother the G600 and G1000 the G500 has push
buttons around the bezel. It has options for SVT, ChartView
and the GAD 43 autopilot interface. The G500 is offered at an
introductory price of $15,995. That price is about half the
cost of the G600, making glass cockpits available for a wider
variety of aircraft. You can see the G500 in the EAA
sweepstakes Aviat Husky and in a Diamond DA20.
Garmin also introduced the GTS or Garmin Traffic Systems family
of products. The 800, 820 and 850 products according to
Garmin will “combine active TAS/TCAS with passive ADS-B
“In” to correlate target data”. The major
difference in the 800, 820/850 is the output power. The 800 has 40
watts of transmit power while the 820 and 850 have 250 watts. All
units feature +/- 0.05 nm of range accuracy and 5 degrees RMS of
bearing accuracy. Garmin noted that all units will work up to
55,000 feet, something competitor systems don’t offer on the
lower wattage units. Availability will be in the forth
quarter of 2009.