Gear

(July 2011) Now that summer is in full swing, Sporty’s has a solution to hot cockpit syndrome. The company offers eight Arctic Air portable air-conditioning systems of varying sizes and prices. Since the units are portable, no STC is required for use in airplanes. The air-conditioning units are electrically operated through a 12- or 24-volt […]

“Flying the Cessna Skycatcher” is a new course from King Schools designed specifically for pilots transitioning to the Skycatcher or for those who would like to know what the airplane is like to fly. The Cessna Skycatcher is a light-sport airplane, powered by a Continental O-200D engine and equipped with a Garmin G300 avionics suite, […]

Senior editor Stephen Pope takes a closer look at Avidyne’s “G1000 killer” in three hot performers.

Climbing into a Cirrus SR22 equipped with Avidyne’s Entegra Release 9 avionics system after spending three hours flying in the left seat of a Diamond DA40 fitted with Garmin’s G1000 cockpit felt like stepping onto the surface of another planet. Arrayed before me in the Cirrus were two large flat-panel displays presenting all the usual […]

Rockwell Collins said this week that it will bring synthetic-vision capability to its Pro Line 21 avionics suite next year, an announcement that was sure to be warmly embraced by OEM customers as well as the pilots who fly with the popular bizav cockpit. The SVS upgrade will be offered for both forward-fit and retrofit, […]

Rockwell Collins’ Pro Line Fusion next-gen avionics system has earned FAA TSO approval, the first and biggest step toward putting it in the cockpits of new bizjets. The system represents a huge leap for Collins, which has in Fusion created a scalable, fully digital upgradable suite that is certain to be the basis for numerous […]

At the Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar presented by the NBAA and Flight Safety Foundation, Rockwell Collins introduced a new head-up guidance system, the HGS-3500, which is intended for light to midsize business airplanes equipped with the company’s Pro Line Fusion flight deck. It’s the first time that a head-up guidance system will be available to […]

We fly Garmin’s new panel-mount touch-screen navigators. Here’s why one flight will make you want one. Or two.

(April 2011) SINCE ITS INTRODUCTION in 1998, Garmin’s remarkable GNS 430 navigator and its larger GNS 530 companion have become the de facto standard in aftermarket aircraft avionics. And no wonder: In the various iterations, the multifunction panel-mount units serve as a moving map, a navigation receiver, a communications transceiver, a GPS (and, later, WAAS) […]

(April 2011) InspecTech Aero Service’s electrically dimmable iShade uses a light-control film that is laminated between structural aircraft windows and dust covers to manage the amount of light coming into the passenger cabin of turboprops, business jets, helicopters and transport category aircraft. Various degrees of tint, from zero to 99.96 percent of light blockage, can […]