Avidyne unveiled on opening day of Oshkosh its soon-to-be-certified v9.3 software upgrade — which includes Synthetic Vision technology (SVS) — for the Entegra Release 9 Integrated Flight Deck (R9) system. The v9.3 software release, which is expected to receive final FAA certification later this year, also provides support for three-screen R9 installations and on-board weather radar, according to company officials.
“Synthetic Vision provides a new level of situational awareness for our R9 customers,” said Patrick Herguth, Avidyne’s Chief Operating Officer. “SVS also gives pilots and passengers additional peace of mind by clearly displaying nearby hazards — including terrain, obstacles, and traffic — in a highly-accurate, full-color 3D presentation, with dynamically-computed visual and aural alerts for added safety.”
Avidyne’s SVS provides a graphical presentation of three-dimensional terrain and water, obstacles, and traffic, and includes the addition of a Total Velocity Vector (TVV) on the primary flight display. The TVV provides a visual representation of the aircraft flight path, indicating where the airplane is going and not necessarily where the aircraft is pointing. METAR-colored flags make it easy to locate airports in the 3D scene, and based on the approach you have entered in the FMS, the selected runway at your destination airport is highlighted for additional clarity and ease of identification.
Avidyne’s SVS has a selectable horizontal field of view (FOV), which provides pilots with the ability to adjust the 3D zoom setting of the terrain presentation on the display. The default field of view is 45° for normal flight. However, a wide-angle 120° field of view setting provides more “peripheral vision” when maneuvering in mountainous areas, while the 20° close-in view might be used to zoom in on a distant airport, allowing you to verify a runway heading from a greater distance away.
SVS also provides color-coded Terrain Awareness that displays yellow and red hashed-patterns overlaid on the terrain display correlating with terrain that is 101 to 500 below your current altitude (yellow) and terrain that is 100 feet below to anything above your current altitude (red). Avidyne’s Forward Looking Terrain Alerting (FLTA) feature provides an extra measure of safety by dynamically displaying a solid yellow or red impact point based on the projected flight path, company officials said.
Version 9.3 software also supports cockpit configurations with three-displays and on-board weather radar. Entegra Release 9 was designed with a peer-to-peer data bus architecture that easily enables expansion of cockpit configurations of two, three, or more integrated flight displays (IFDs), while allowing each display to have full access to all of the data of the others. In a three-IFD system, like Avidyne is certifying for the Piper Meridian, each IFD can display on-board weather radar and SVS simultaneously, just as they all have access to other important information like datalink weather, checklists, and engine instrumentation, officials add.
Existing owners of Entegra Release 9-equipped Cirrus SR20/SR22 and Piper Matrix aircraft will receive v9.3 software and the Synthetic Vision upgrade free of charge.For new installation of Entegra Release 9, the Synthetic Vision option can be enabled for an additional $5,000 per display.
Version 9.3 software and SVS are expected to be approved later this year, and will also add the Piper PA-46 Mirage and Meridian models to the list of Entegra Release 9-approved aircraft.
Entegra Release 9 with dual IFD5000 displays and dual ADAHRS for retrofit into Entegra-equipped Cirrus aircraft starts at $69,000, and $72,800 for Mirage and PA-32 aircraft. Entegra Release 9 with three IFD5000 displays and dual ADAHRS radar interface, and piston engine interface for retrofit into Entegra-equipped Mirage aircraft starts $100,000. Entegra Release 9 with three IFD5000 displays and dual ADAHRS radar interface, and turbine engine interface for retrofit into Entegra-equipped Meridian aircraft starts $125,000.
For more information: Avidyne.com
