Dynon Avionics has finally received FAA certification of its Beechcraft Bonanza 36 autopilot.
Received more than a year after it was expected, the certification also includes several changes to the SkyView display hardware, according to company officials.
The delayed certification halted the shipping of all SkyView HDX systems as the company waited for an FAA signature, company officials said in a Dec. 16, 2021, email to customers.
“Earlier this year, we made a minor internal change to SkyView’s display hardware that required certification. For multiple reasons, including efficiently packaging projects to work with the FAA, we decided to include that revision in the Bonanza 36 project. With a lot of schedule slack already factored in, this should have been a transparent change to customers. The approval should have been in hand long before we ran out of the previous hardware revision. Unfortunately, with the certification delays, that is not what transpired. As a result, Dynon Certified displays are currently backordered.”
Shipping will resume “in a few days,” company officials noted.
The Autopilot
The autopilot is FAA certified for all Bonanza 36s, A36s, and B36s.
“Bonanza pilots benefit from a full-featured three-axis autopilot system, including yaw damper, that is approach capable when paired with a compatible third-party IFR navigation device,” company officials noted.
Pricing for a two-axis autopilot system starts at $4,715, which inclues all required brackets, hardware, and servo harnesses. Yaw damper adds $815 with wire harness.
Frequently chosen options include the SkyView Autopilot Control Panel ($550), which provides dedicated autopilot controls for the pilot, and the Knob Control Panel ($250), which has dedicated knobs to adjust the values that pilots adjust the most when they fly under autopilot (altitude, heading/track, and altimeter setting).
Additional autopilot approvals are currently in progress for the Cessna 182, Beechcraft Baron, and Mooney M20. Additional Bonanza models are expected to be added in the future, Dynon officials noted.
Mounting System Installation Aids
The new certification also approves a suite of mounting system products designed to reduce the time and effort installers spend mounting modules in the aircraft, with the goal of ultimately reducing the installed costs to the end customer, company officials report.
Until now, installers had to spend time deciding where to locate each module in an airplane, design custom brackets to mount each module, fabricating those custom brackets, and finally attach the brackets and modules to the airplane.
With Dynon’s new mounting systems, an installer can attach modules to brackets and trays that are specifically designed to receive them. They are also designed to integrate with Dynon SkyView HDX displays and other existing aircraft mounting points, such as the radio rack, company officials explain.
The Universal Module Mounting Tray Kit for SV-HDX1100 mounts many of the commonly used SkyView electronic modules right behind the instrument panel.
This puts the equipment close to the power distribution busses and the pitot-static plumbing, making the retrofit of a new glass panel “quick and easy,” company officials said.
“Maintenance access is enhanced, as every module is accessible through the display unit’s instrument panel opening after the display is removed,” company officials add.
The kit, which sells for $95, provides the Universal Module Mounting Tray along with the hardware necessary to install the tray permanently to the instrument panel. It can mount all of the required modules (SV-ADAHRS-200, SV-EMS-220, SV-ARINC-429, SV-BAT-320) except for the magnetometer, along with the SV-ADSB-472.
The COM/XPNDR Module Mounting Kit, also priced at $95, simplifies the retrofit of the Dynon remote mounted COM and Transponder transceivers by locating these modules in a tray that is designed to fasten to the radio rack where previous rack-mounted COM and XPNDR transceivers were located, according to Dynon officials.
The Module Mounting Tray may be installed either upright or inverted, with module access provided via the included access cover, or from underneath the instrument panel, depending upon the accessibility provided by surrounding equipment, Dynon officials note.
Also available is the Module Mounting Tray for SV-HDX800. This tray mounts the SV-BAT-320 Back Up Battery, along with one of either the SV-COM-T8 COM Transceiver, or the SV-XPNDR-261 Transponder.
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Their productivity has dropped from 5% to 3%.