Previews Synthetic Vision, Backup Instruments
Aspen Avionics introduced version 2.2 software for its popular
Evolution EFD at the 53rd annual AEA Convention and trade show
Thursday. The new version of the Aspen software adds some new
user-friendly features that increase functionality and decrease
cockpit workload.
"We have 2,600 installations flying," said Brad Hayden, Aspen's
Vice President for Marketing. "Considering that it was just two
years ago this month that we launched the product, that a pretty
significant number."
Hayden said the company is now starting to take its "product
roadmap" to the next step, building new products for new markets
based on the EFD1000 hardware and software, with both the fixed and
rotary wing markets showing interest. "There's a bunch of Extra 300
guys that like to try to see if they can make our AHRS roll, make
it tumble," Hayden said. "They had some contests going where the
only way they were able to get it to roll would be to fly in a
knife-edge ILS approach. And it turns out we were able to fix that
with our 2.0 version software. So now they can't get it to tumble
at all."
The version 2.2 software for EFD1000 will include some
significant new features, including navmap panning. The feature
uses a "gunsight" which the pilot can place over an object or
non-object and retrieve information about the targeted item. A
second panning function allows scrolling off the map being
displayed.
Hayden said there are now multiple paths to the same
information. For those pilots who prefer to go through the menus to
get information, they can still do that, or use the "gunsight"
panning function. "One of the things we really strive to do,"
Hayden said, "is build a product that conforms to the pilot, and
not the other way around."
Later this year, Aspen plans to start shipping a backup display,
which is essentially an EFD1000 in landscape orientation. It will
include seven backup "instruments" in one unit, including attitude,
altitude, airspeed, VSI, HSI, GPS flight plan, and GPS
steering.
Aspen also plans to make a synthetic vision upgrade available
early in 2011. The system will be based on Jeppesen 3 arc second
terrain data on a high-resolution display. Hayden says the
combination of the hi-res display and the Jeppesen terrain data
make a very compelling and realistic representation.
Hayden said pricing information on the upgrades will be
available later this month.