Another Amazing Selection From ANN's Top 10 Products/Programs Of 2008

Final Compilations by ANN Editor-In-Chief/Blame-Taker, Jim Campbell

When it comes to the people, planes and products of the aviation business, ANN firmly believes there is no such thing as an embarrassment of riches. 2008 saw a spate of new programs and 'gadgets' designed to separate a pilot from his flying dollar... fortunately, the vast majority of them are quite worthy of foregoing the occasional $500 hamburger or two

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In fact, for 2008 we really had to struggle with the list in order to pare it down to a manageable assembly and if we hadn't, we'd have easily had to increase the size of our annual 'Best Of' list to several dozen, or so, to accommodate them all.

From established products that continue to impress, to new and exciting developments across the range of general aviation... here, to our eyes, are some of  the VERY BEST from our list of the 10 most worthy 'gadgets' and programs of 2008.

Avidyne's SERIOUSLY COOL FMS900W

An FMS for the masses… that's what Avidyne hopes for with its development of the FMS 900W.

Avidyne Corporation had some BIG news to share with the GA world last spring with the introduction of their new Entegra FMS900W WAAS-enabled GPS/NAV/COM Flight Management System (FMS). Designed to reduce workload for single-pilot IFR operations, the FMS900W provides fully-redundant, state-of-the art VHF and TSO C146b Gamma 3-compliant turbine-class FMS capability for all general aviation aircraft.

When Avidyne strutted its stuff before ANN's Aero-TV crews with a demo of their upcoming FMS900W system on a number of occasions over the last year, we grew more and more impressed each time… especially with one particular factor, the device's innate ease of use (and yes, it's incredibly capable, to boot). We've worked with a number of FMS systems over the years but this box seems destined to make its mark in GA with truly simple operational requirements and an amazing bag of tricks. For the moment, there's nothing quite like it.

In the works for some time, the new Entegra FMS900W WAAS-enabled GPS/NAV/COM Flight Management System (FMS) is designed to reduce workload for single-pilot IFR operations. The FMS900W provides a fully-redundant, state-of-the art VHF and TSO C146b Gamma 3-compliant turbine-class FMS capability for all GA aircraft.

Utilizing a fully-modular architecture, the FMS900W Flight Management System is an enhancement to Avidyne's Entegra Integrated Flight Deck platform and is designed specifically to take advantage of Entegra's large-format displays and Byteflight peer-to-peer databus architecture.

FMS900W system components include single or dual remote-mount LRUs, each with Avidyne's GPS723 WAAS/RNP GPS Sensor and a DVX740 VHF NAV/COM module and optional ACD215 Control/Display Units. Avidyne's GPS723 sensor is a fully compliant RTCA DO-229D, Gamma 3 navigation system, and is designed to meet Required Navigation Performance (RNP-0.3).

Avidyne is undertaking the certification of the Entegra FMS900W program and expects to start installations in 2009… we can hardly wait - we think we have an airplane that's just perfect for this.

FMI: www.avidyne.com