Among a host of new products and services on display at the Aircraft Electronics Association convention in Dallas, Texas, MyGoFlight offered two distinct innovations that stood out. The Colorado-based company known at first for flight deck mounting hardware and other targeted tools for GA aircraft debuted its InfinityPower panel-mounted USB charging unit and showed off its incoming SkyDisplay HUD, with AID (aircraft integration device) and Max Viz infrared camera. Both demonstrate upscale design and a thoughtful approach—and good timing to the market.
The InfinityPower device answers the reality of planned obsolescence that plagues users of portable electronic devices from iPhones to GPS navigators. A panel-mounted charger used to mean a 12-volt “cigarette lighter” that many legacy instrument panels still hold. In the past decade we’ve advanced to panel-mounted USB charging units, but with every design change to the connector technology—from USB A 2.0 to USB C, for example—a receptacle can quickly become obsolete. The InfinityPower device comes in two parts—a rear-mounted power base that can be wired from the back or the side, and a twist-on front-mounted piece housing the USB receptacle that can be changed out with advances in USB technology. Priced at $175 for the power base and $175 for each USB module, the device will be available in the fourth quarter 2021, with pre-orders taken through Aircraft Spruce & Specialty.
With the near-ubiquity of glass up front in most new light GA aircraft, the market may well be ready for the star player in MyGoFlight’s lineup, the SkyDisplay HUD. When HUDs for piston singles and twins were first proposed nearly two decades ago, the gadget factor was high and the proposition a little too much for the products to gain traction. Now, however, as GA pilots we’ve been trained on the presentation now demonstrated by the SkyDisplay—and we’ve seen the value of having a flight path marker and other aids to flight that the HUD presents. MyGoFlight has developed and gained DO-160 certification on the heart of its HUD—the AID (aircraft interface device)—which is a rugged, off-the-shelf computer system that can read ARINC 429, RS232 serial data, analog data, and analog and digital video inputs. The AID comes with mini PCIe card slots to support add-on I/O module integration.
The other primary component of the SkyDisplay is the HUD projection unit. Weighing one pound, its LCD incorporates an LED backlight with 480 by 240 resolution and a custom flight deck mount. MyGoFlight has been flying with the unit in CEO Charles Schneider’s Cirrus SR22, as well as putting it into firefighting aircraft locally in Colorado. Pre-orders have been taken for a series of two dozen aircraft, up to a Pilatus PC-12 and Citation CJ series jets.
