Touchscreen may be the top buzzword in avionics, but synthetic vision (SV) is right behind. Many pilots don’t know why they want synthetic vision, or even fully understand exactly what it is, yet the gee-whiz factor alone has made SV systems the most sought after upgrade we’ve seen in a while.

Whether synthetic vision is worth the non-trivial expense depends on your mission and your ability to absorb a lot of overlapping data on small screen.