At the Avidyne press conference on Tuesday, company founder and CEO Dan Schwinn said that he hasn’t heard any customers complain that the new Avidyne R9 lacked features-it is, in fact, loaded with new capabilities-but he said that he had heard a few potential customers wishing that it cost less. With this mind, Schwinn formally announced a new, less expensive version of R9 for Cirrus Airplanes, known as the Entegra R9 Silver, which costs just $39,500, compared to $72,800 for the full-featured edition, now known as the Platinum edition. The Silver hits that price point by making a number of concessions to cost. For one, it makes do without the WAAS receiver or antenna-Schwinn said that a good number of VFR-only pilots see little additional value to WAAS-the FMS is fully upgradeable, if they change their mind about WAAS. The Silver edition also lacks the keyboard, a doable proposition since the system can be controlled entirely with the bezel mounted keys. Lastly, the system makes do with a single ADAHRS and magnetometer, instead of the dual systems on the R9 Platinum. A second new version, the R9 Gold, is the same as the Silver package but retains the WAAS capabilities.
Avidyne Offers Budget Versions of its New Avionics for Cirrus
