I noticed that Avicyne has announced the upcoming availability of engine monitoring for the EX5000 MFD. There is an article with a picture of the display on aero-news.net. It looks very nice. Here is the text of the article:
Avidyne: Engine Monitoring/Fuel Totalizer FlightMax EX5000 MFD
Integrated Engine Monitor and Fuel Totalizer Give A/C Owners A Clearer Picture
Avidyne has announced integrated engine monitoring and fuel totalizer capability for their line of FlightMax EX5000 multi-function displays.
The engine monitor on the FlightMax EX5000 features a handy graphical fuel totalizer, a “lean acquire” mode, and a “percent horsepower” display, which assist the pilot in taking the guess work out of fuel and power management. The integrated fuel totalizer monitors fuel flow and computes nautical miles per gallon, fuel remaining, fuel-to-waypoint, and fuel-to-destination. All six cylinder head (CHT) and exhaust gas temperatures (EGT), RPM, manifold pressure, oil temperature, oil pressure, fuel flow, outside air temperature (OAT), and electrical bus voltages are also monitored and displayed.
A dedicated engine monitor page shows all engine settings and parameters at a glance. The FlightMax EX5000 also displays engine and fuel data in data blocks on the full-screen moving map display. In the event of an exceedence, each out-of-limit parameter is highlighted on the screen for immediate attention. The engine monitor also includes data capture capability, providing full-time recording of critical engine performance parameters.
The MFD will log up to 30 hours of recorded data, which can be downloaded via the MFD’s bezel-accessible data port in a standard spreadsheet format for easy analysis.
“Our strategy is to integrate more and more information onto our large-format displays, and engine monitor capability is another step in that direction,” said Avidyne president Dan Schwinn. “Giving pilots the ability to better manage their power settings and fuel consumption increases the overall value of our product, and also moves us closer to our vision of a fully-integrated flight deck.”
About FlightMax EX5000: The FlightMax EX5000 is a large-format, multi-function display with a 10.4-inch diagonal
high-resolution (800x600 pixels) active-matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD). The FlightMax EX5000 allows the pilot to overlay important navigation data such as the active flight plan route, airways, navaids, off-route waypoints, political boundaries, obstacles and special use airspace, over an exceptional color-contoured terrain and water base map. It also displays lightning and traffic data when interfaced with Goodrich’s WX-500 Stormscope® lightning sensor and Skywatch® Traffic Awareness System (TAS), and datalink graphical weather.
Pricing and Availability: AvidyneÂ’s engine monitor capability is planned for certification on FlightMax EX5000 series MFDs by mid 2002, and will initially include interfaces for TCM IO-360 and IO-550 engines, which are found on Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft. FlightMax EX5000 Retrofit Kits will be available to upgrade Cirrus aircraft in the field.
FMI: www.avidyne.com/EX5000
AvidyneÂ’s engine monitor capability is planned for certification on FlightMax EX5000 series MFDs by mid 2002, and will initially include interfaces for TCM IO-360 and IO-550 engines, which are found on Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft. FlightMax EX5000 Retrofit Kits will be available to upgrade Cirrus aircraft in the field.
Gordon,
Do you know whether the engine monitoring option will also be available for the EX3000C (the Avidyne model for us tightwad cheapskates)? The http://www.avidyne.com/EX5000C/default.htmAvidyne EX5000C/EX3000C web page indicates that engine monitoring will be available for both the EX5000C and the EX3000C — but their plans may have changed.
Thanks,
Roger
Gordon:
This looks like a nice system and has a nicer display than the ARNAV. BUT THE REAL QUESTION: The Avidyne also has the DX50 system for weather uplink. It requires another antenna. When THIS becomes available will we have the same problems with antenna installation on the Cirrus that folks have had with the Ryan TCAD system? That could srtike a real blow to the Avidyne product if we could not add on the datalink.
Brian
When [DX50 wx] becomes available will we have the same problems with antenna installation on the Cirrus that folks have had with the Ryan TCAD system?
I doubt that Cirrus themselves will have any problem adding an antenna, but I’ll ask them. I don’t recall that there was any issue or delay when they added the large Skywatch antenna. The issue with the TCAD was that the hole was not blessed by Cirrus (correct me if I’m wrong).
If I understood Cirrus correctly at SnF, they will “wait and see” which weather datalink system seems to “win” – presumably they are considering the Garmin/Echoflight and the Avidyne/Orbcomm combinations. (And, as you and I know, there are other systems out there, too!
My impression was that they were not planning to do the engineering work required to figure out antenna placement until they were convinced of the better system. In other words, don’t expect it offered from cirrus as soon as it’s available from Avidyne…
While you are asking Cirrus about the DX50 installation, can you also ask if the factory can pre-install the antenna, for those of us taking delivery in a couple of months, but probably too soon for the full DX50 installation?
If I understood Cirrus correctly at SnF, they will “wait and see” which weather datalink system seems to “win” – presumably they are considering the Garmin/Echoflight and the Avidyne/Orbcomm combinations.
The Garmin wx service also uses the Orbcomm satellite, so my guess is that the antenna for either of these services will be identical.
AFAIK, the Garmin wx would not display on the Avidyne MFD and instead would display on the relatively itty bitty 430 screen. I think that would be a cryin’ shame. Re pricing:
Pricing for the FlightMax DX50 data link system and antenna is $2,950. FlightMax data services will start at $29 per month with availability expected by mid-2002.
The subscriber communicator (GDL-49) will be available from GARMIN at a suggested retail price of $3,495. The subscription service from Echo Flight will cost between $10 to $55 a month depending on the plan you choose.
