STC Will Cover All R44 Models

Garmin announced Sunday that it has initiated work on a project to obtain an STC for installation of the Garmin G500H glass cockpit in the Robinson R44 helicopter. Once completed, any authorized Garmin dealer can install the G500H in an R44 in accordance with FAA guidelines. The STC will cover all models of the R44 helicopter.

R44s presently equipped with a 10-hole instrument panel will be able to install the G500H display directly into the instrument panel. R44s equipped with seven or nine hole instrument panels will be able to install Garmin’s PMA’d parts kit that will replace the instrument panel assembly with a new Garmin designed assembly optimized for G500H.

This new instrument panel assembly puts the G500H display within easy reach and view of the pilot yet is small enough that the view outside the cockpit is excellent. “The G500H is becoming a very popular avionics suite with the helicopter community because of its vast capability and flexibility,” said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s vice president of marketing. “With nearly 5,000 R44 helicopters in service around the world, Garmin is pleased to offer the benefits of the G500H to this large community of helicopter operators.”

The G500H is an all-glass avionics system designed specifically for the VFR Part 27 helicopter market. The primary flight display (PFD) shows attitude, airspeed, vertical  speed, altitude and course/heading information, and the multi-function display (MFD) has detailed moving map graphics with the helicopter’s current position in relation to terrain,  chart data, navaids, and flight plan routings. The system offers features like  helicopter synthetic vision technology (HSVT), XM WX Satellite Weather with NEXRAD, the ability to display video from a forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera or other video sources, and a helicopter-specific database with over 7,000 heliports and nearly 30,000 additional low altitude obstacles in addition to the already extensive obstacle database found in the fixed-wing G500 system.

Garmin anticipates receiving the STC for the Robinson R44 in the fourth quarter of 2011.

FMI: www.garmin.com