Hazard Display With No More Holes In Your Panel
It's small, it's affordable -- even moreso for the next month or
so -- and it's one of dozens of products on display at Oshkosh.
Aspen Avionics says it's moving right along on efforts to certify
its AT300 hazard display.
The company is pricing to sell, as well. This month, Aspen
brought back its popular $1000 discount on the innovative AT300
hazard display, just in time for AirVenture. Special pricing of
$2495 for the non-certified display will be available through any
of Aspen’s 35 dealers through the end of July. The AT300 will
be on display at the company’s exhibit at AirVenture, booth
2126.
The company also reports the AT300 certification effort remains
on schedule. In May the company conducted FAA human factors
evaluations of the display, which was followed in June and early
July with the successful completion of formal TSO environmental
qualification testing.
"Environmental qualification testing forms the most significant
and highest risk aspect of our certification effort," Peter Lyons,
Aspen’s president. "With the successful completion of these
tests, we see no remaining technical obstacles toward receiving our
TSO." The company expects to receive TSO authorization from the FAA
later this summer, with first customer deliveries of certified
product expected to begin shortly after receiving this key FAA
approval.
Lyons said AT300 is the only moving map on the market that can
be installed in a standard 3 inch instrument hole. No panel
modifications or relocation of other instrumentation is required
since the AT300, which includes a vertical speed indicator, can
directly replace the existing mechanical VSI. Flight plan
information from a panel-mount GPS navigator is shown as a magenta
track line overlaid on a moving map terrain display that also shows
man-made obstructions. Terrain and obstructions are color coded
based upon their vertical proximity to the aircraft. The moving map
is supplemented with the textual display of the current waypoint
ID, desired track, groundspeed, distance to go and estimated time
enroute.
"The AT300 offers piston engine aircraft owners many of the same
safety and operational benefits that are associated with far more
expensive TAWS systems, but at a price point that is more
affordable for the piston-engine crowd." said Lyons. "The
unit’s moving map is comparable in size to most leading GPS
navigators, but unlike those systems, the AT300 can be easily
installed among the primary flight instruments directly in front of
the pilot, making it easy to read and incorporate into the
pilot’s instrument scan."
The AT300 is a small form factor display that combines a
vertical speed instrument and moving map display to show the pilot
aircraft vertical speed and nearby terrain. The company plans to
add WSI data link weather to the unit in a future product release.
The AT300 uses the same mechanical form factor as a legacy
mechanical Vertical Speed Instrument (VSI), and is designed to
replace that instrument. This combination allows the equipment to
be easily retrofitted into almost any aircraft that has a VSI
indicator and a GPS navigation computer.