Which way is this thing gonna go?
Will the world of general aviation avionics tilt in favor of Alpha boxes with color maps and comms or will the mega map displays soon take over?
Neither. It now seems at least somewhat clear that large area displays such as the Avidyne FSD we’ll review here will likely co-exist with the likes of the Garmin 430 and more as-yet-to-be-announced self-contained navigators.
Whats most curious about this emerging market is that despite fundamental differences in basic product philosophy, they all do more or less the same thing. The large format multi-function displays depend on external discrete boxes for navigation, traffic and weather data while the self-contained units navigate for themselves but look to same external boxes for additional data.
So whats the difference? Price, for one, although not all that much when you add up all the potential features for equivalent capability. Size for another. The MFDs have larger screens than self-contained navigators, although Garmins GNS 530 is not much smaller than the largest MFD.
So why buy one-especially the Avidyne-instead of a self-contained box? Here are the pros and cons and good, hard look at the Avidyne FSD.
Product History
The Avidyne product line made its first major debut at Oshkosh in 1995, along with a couple of other cockpit PC systems that were then just beyond the breadboard stage. Even four years ago, the Avidyne looked production ready and in our 1995 Oshkosh report, we noted that Avidyne promised moving map, digitized visual charts, TCAD, storm and radar data plus eventually datalinked weather information. At the time, the delivery schedule was open ended but by early 1999, Avidyne had essentially delivered on its promises.
Avidynes first product, the $9500 Flight Situation Display, was an la carte product; you bought the basic box and operating system but goodies such as radar and storm detection interfaces were add-on extras, bringing the total bottom line to some $18,000 for the works.
True to the high-tech paradigm of offering the same or more for less money in advancing iterations, Avidyne announced earlier this year two new products, the FlightMax 440 and 740, which build on the original products, offering more features, a faster processor and a bundled pricing scheme that includes a basic set of software for a range of functions, rather than requiring the buyer to purchase each function piecemeal.
The model breakdown is thus: The 740 (retail $14,995) is intended for radar-equipped aircraft and will replace the display tube in most Bendix/King radars, with more radar models planned for the future. In addition, the 740 can accept and display lightning data from a WX-500 remote Stormscope and traffic data from either a Ryan TCAD (active or passive versions) or a BFGoodrichs Skywatch.
As presently configured, these displays are discrete: In other words, when youre looking at the radar display, thats all you see. You have to manually toggle between that display and, say, any of the moving map displays. In future software releases planned for this year, aircraft equipped with both lightning sensors and radar can combine these displays-along with traffic information-on any of the moving maps.
The FlightMax 440, at $9995 retail, sounds like an entry-level product. But not really. Like the higher-priced version, it includes all the basic moving map software and other features but lacks the radar interface. (In an airplane without radar, this offers the option of not buying what you don’t need.)
From the outset, the Avidyne computer-in-the-panel concept has pushed the idea that all of these units can be upgraded at any time to top-of-the-line status. Avidynes Tom Harper tells us that any Avidyne display-from serial number 1 forward-can be readily (if not cheaply) upgraded to state-of-the-art status.
Big Box
As avionics go, the Avidyne is big. It is, after all, a full-blown, Windows-based computer. The overall size is the standard 6.25 inch rack width but 12 inches deep and 4 inches high. Surprisingly, the install is relatively easy, thanks to good support from Avidyne and well-thought out instructions. (Weight is 8 pounds.)
In addition to the box itself, there’s an optional CD-ROM drive which is used for updating nav data and software and, for those so inclined, playing music CDs. This drive-retail cost $1495-can be installed permanently on the panel or elsewhere in the cabin or used periodically on a temporary basis to update the navigation data, which resides on the hard drive. Rather than install the CD-ROM permanently, we placed it in the baggage compartment and connected it via cable to the display unit.