The concept of a wireless cockpit—pushing flight plan data from a tablet app to certified avionics, to name one capability—is supposed to curtail the task of programming a panel GPS. I think Garmin’s Flight Stream Connect wireless network, via its Pilot tablet app, succeeds in doing that, but doesn’t eliminate all of the workload, which is a good thing. That was my impression after Garmin’s Jessica Koss demonstrated the Flight Stream and ADS-B interface as we flew in the company Cirrus in the Northeast airspace, pictured to the right.
If you’ve ever flown with a pair of Garmin navigators (either the GNS430/530 or GTN750/650), you’ve likely used the crossfill function, where data that’s programmed into one navigator automatically feeds into the other through an RS232 serial databus. This eliminates the tedious task of programming the same flight plan into both navigators. But programming the panel navigators remotely over a wireless hub can’t work as seamlessly, and that has much to do with safeguarding critical flight data. Call it cockpit cybersecurity, if you will. That’s what the FAA calls it.