Garmin announced at the AEA Convention in Las Vegas that it has created an entire lineup of avionics for the amateur-built market focused around its G3X system. Over the past couple of years Garmin assembled a team of engineers, dubbed Team X, to work on these avionics components and flight-test them in their own amateur-built aircraft in Garmin’s homebuilt Midwest version of the Skunk Works.
The lineup that Team X created runs the gamut from an angle-of-attack probe to a full-fledged flat-panel system, but what all the produces have in common is that they are non-certificated and their price point is very low. Also new from Garmin are an autopilot control head and servos for use with the G3X, a new engine analyzer, and a new solid state ADAHRS altitude-heading reference system with angle of attack.
Garmin is not new to the Experimental market, having developed the avionics for Cessna’s Skycatcher LSA. But the company’s G3X system, based on that Cessna product, is now fully developed and goes well beyond the G300 system in the Skycatcher, as it adds remarkable new capabilities, such as dual ADAHRS and air data, multiple screen capability, integrated advanced autopilot capability, and ADS-B (through a remote-mount version of its popular GDL-39 ADS-B receiver).
The prices, again, are remarkable. A single display G3X system goes for just $4,375, the two-screen system for $6,495, and the three-screen version for just $8,495 — pennies on the dollar compared to certified versions of roughly comparable Garmin products.
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