I saw an article about high tech displays in the Sept. 2002 issue of Aviation Safety. This EFIS, made by Dynon Development, is designed to fit in a std. 3 1/8 inch instrument cutout, and it looks amazing! No mechanical gyros, and the solid state ones it uses are comparable in precision to the ring laser gyros used military jets and spacecraft… of course, lots of other flight instrumentation can be layered on the basic attitude display… I’ve got a call into them for particulars, but it supposedly is going to ship at less than $2K per unit.
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I saw an article about high tech displays in the Sept. 2002 issue of Aviation Safety. This EFIS, made by Dynon Development, is designed to fit in a std. 3 1/8 inch instrument cutout, and it looks amazing! No mechanical gyros, and the solid state ones it uses are comparable in precision to the ring laser gyros used military jets and spacecraft… of course, lots of other flight instrumentation can be layered on the basic attitude display… I’ve got a call into them for particulars, but it supposedly is going to ship at less than $2K per unit.
My understanding is that this instrument is for experimental/homebuilt use only. I do not believe they are going to certify the unit, which means that if you want to panel mount it in your plane, it would be a long, arduous task. (I suppose it could be done, but it seems hard enough to get field approval for something with an STC in another plane, let alone something which is not TSO’d and not STC’d in any plane.)
Although panel mount would be nice, I think if we want something like this in the short term (and don’t want to get something ultra-sophisticated [i.e expensive] like the full Avidyne PFD), two options are the http://www.anywheremap.com>Anywhere attitude indicator and the MicroEFIS from [Icarus Instruments. Both of which display on an Ipaq, and are “portable” so no paperwork is required, I believe.
Historically, I personally have been opposed to using something like an Ipaq in flight. (I realize that opinions vary widely on this, I’m just stating mine). Never could justify the extra wiring just to get an extra moving map.
But now that you could have moving map PLUS an attitude indicator/EFIS PLUS datalink weather all on the same Ipaq, suddenly the equation shifts enough where I’d actually consider getting one.
Steve
](http://www.icarusinstruments.com)
William: I have another possibility. According to Cirrus, when the Engine Monitor option is installed with the Avidyne, the “steam gauge” EGT/CHT instrument must be removed from the right hand side of the panel. I plan to put in the Engine Monitor and then move the Davtron clock/o.a.t./voltmeter to the right hand side of the panel. This leaves a 2 1/4" opening on the top left of the left panel, just left of the airspeed indicator.
I talked to R C Allen instruments at Oshkosh. They said that they are working on a 2 1/4" electric AH, but the development is taking longer than anticipated. They hope to have it available soon. I would put the backup AH in that opening, just left of the airspeed indicator.
This could be set up with a standby battery along the lines of the Piper Meridian (which uses the very expensive Goodrich AIM series backup AH). The Meridian has an “off-on-test” switch near the AH. Most of the time it would be in the “off” position. In IMC, you probably would want to have both AH’s running.
Of course, the new SR22’s with the EFIS display already have a EFIS display with a backup AH in the bolster. That was shown at Oshkosh.
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But now that you could have moving map PLUS an attitude indicator/EFIS PLUS datalink weather all on the same Ipaq, suddenly the equation shifts enough where I’d actually consider getting one.
I’ve been using the Anywhere Wx all summer now, and I like it more everytime I use it.
Paul
Steve,
I use ANYWHEREMAP & WEATHER on every flight. Weather takes a minute and has gotten me ‘around and thru’ very often eliminating huge delays. Plus, I use the ‘logbook’ function as well. Can’t wait to get the back-up AI.
With 1 BAT and ALT…this is great back-up which takes 5 seconds to initiate…just sit it in the cradle and its ‘live’.
TC,