Has 'The Look'

There's something kinda strange about those vintage fliers, you know. They'll spend four months looking for the "right" rivet to use under the wheel well, and then glitz up the cockpit better'n Flash Gordon.

All that newfangled Loran and satellite stuff just doesn't fit the image of most vintage aircraft.

Avidyne has come to the rescue, with its unprecedented new "Antiqua" line.

Sporting most of the features of the state-of-the-art Entegra series, now showing on the most-modern aircraft in the business, the Avidyne "Antiqua" PFD/MFD series keeps the functionality, but in a number of attractive and authentic "classic" packages.

• The Antiqua's features are controlled by a series of large, brown Bakelite knobs.
• Instead of flat-panel technology, the Antiqua's screen is dramatically convex, and sports realistic distortion of the image, near the edges.
• Instead of instant-on graphics, the Antiqua (though its solid-state electronics are truly modern) features a "warm-up" circuit, that keeps the image from achieving full brightness for several minutes after it's turned on.
• To simulate "classic" electronics, the Antiqua has an integral heater that cannot be turned off. Its resultant current drain (50 amps) makes old-style charging systems think they're dealing with the "real thing."
• There is an intermittent "horizontal flipper" that activates an annoying image-flopping; it needs to be adjusted away, with the "horizontal hold" knob. [While we don't approve of this particular feature, Avidyne says it not only gives the Antiqua an authentic aura, it also is a safety enhancement. Spokesman Tod Harpen told us, "When that screen starts flopping, everybody pays instant attention. There's no going to sleep with the Antiqua."]
• ...and of course, all graphics are available in in low-res black-and-white (optional), even down to an authentic 1950's style test pattern (these Avidyne guys don't miss a trick!) during the warm-up period.

Available at Avidyne's Sun 'n Fun booth this week, the Antiqua is priced competitively.

(FAA TSO'd Rabbit Ears sold separately.)

FMI: www.avidyne.com