Compact 8" PFD Fits Almost All GA Planes
Avidyne introduced the Entegra
PFD4000, a new compact, 8-inch primary flight display system, this
week at AirVenture 2008. The panel is designed to fit virtually any
general aviation aircraft, adding the enhanced situational
awareness and reliability of an all-glass flight deck.
The PFD4000 is designed as a "6-pack" replacement that will fit
in virtually any panel space and offers traditional primary flight
instrumentation, including support for autopilot and flight
director as well as altitude pre-select, vertical speed select and
heading select modes.
Just like the Entegra EXP5000, it's bigger brother, the PFD4000
has a wide-format artificial horizon, intuitive trend tapes for
altitude, airspeed, and vertical speed, a full horizontal situation
indicator (HSI) with moving map presentation of flight plan data
and an RMI/Bearing pointer overlay, as well as a full-time wind
vector -- all within the pilot's primary field of view.
The PFD4000 also offers one-button access to frequent pilot
settings such as altitude, vertical speed, and heading, as well as
a dedicated BARO knob, make it easy to use. It is designed to have
a learning curve of less than five minutes.
"The introduction of the PFD4000 is consistent with Avidyne's
long term mission of 'Making Flying Simple' for an expanded range
of pilots and airframes by now offering a portfolio of glass
cockpit options on more aircraft than any other vendor in general
aviation," stated Rob Higby, the company's vice president of
Marketing, Sales and Service.
"Further, the modular design of our PFDs provides customers with
the option of an upgrade platform to support premium services such
as Synthetic Vision (SVS), Enhanced Vision (EVS), and Highway in
the Sky (HITS) displays as they become available. It's the latest
example of how we are becoming the 'go-to' supplier of glass flight
decks across the spectrum of general aviation aircraft by creating
a comprehensive line of scalable, upgradeable, and 'grow as you go'
MFDs, PFDs and IFDs," he added.
With its super-bright 8-inch diagonal LED-backlit XGA display
(1024x768), the PFD4000 is easily readable in sunlit conditions. It
integrates all of the primary flight instruments into a single,
easy-to-use display including a horizontal situation indicator
(HSI) which puts advanced navigation displays in the pilot's
primary field of view. Fully integrated with the airplane's VLOC/
GPS, the PFD4000 provides synchronized switching from the en route
phase of flight to the approach phase. Its 6-second trend
indicators based on the airplane's altitude, airspeed and heading
also help reduce the pilot's workload and increase his or her
precision when changing or maintaining critical airspeeds and
altitudes.
The PFD4000 is easy to install, calibrate, troubleshoot and
repair with its self-diagnostic, built-in test capability. It uses
Avidyne's AHR300 remote-mounted, solid-state Air Data/Attitude and
Heading Reference System (ADAHRS) to provide its roll, pitch,
heading, yaw and rate data. The AHR300 has an integrated air data
computer which is connected to the pitot-static system to provide
airspeed, altitude, vertical speed and outside air temperature
(OAT) and to continually update the winds aloft and true airspeed
indications on the display. In addition, it features an
Aircraft Configuration Module (ACM) which stores and maintains all
of the aircraft's system settings so there's no need for
recalibration or reconfiguration in the event of an equipment
change. A bezel-mounted USB port also makes software updates easy
and convenient. A remote-mounted MPI130 I/O interface unit supports
a wide variety of GPS, FMS, V/LOC radios and autopilots.
In dual-PFD4000 installations, Avidyne's unique Cross-Compare
System (CCS) monitors both ADAHRS and provides visual alerts in the
event of system or navigational anomalies. When coupled with the
autopilot, the PFD 4000 offers selection bugs and digital readouts
for altitude preselection and vertical speed and heading
choices.
Avidyne says the PFD4000 will be "competitively" priced, and
available sometime in 2009.