New "Get Me Outta Here!" Automatic Inadvertent IMC Exit Mode Rocks!

By ANN Correspondent Juan Jimenez

Trio Avionics - sharing a booth with Alturair at E-13, look for the white and red Bede BD-5 shell - is showing an updated EZ Pilot autopilot system for experimental aircraft at Sun-N-Fun 2004.

The unit has been upgraded to add several new features designed to increase tracking performance, safety and options for its customers. They're also working on a new product, but it's secret, strictly need to know, and they told this reporter that you won't get any information by coming to the booth to ask about it.

Among the new upgrades are a safety mode that detects when the aircraft begins to move for takeoff and checks to see if the autopilot servo is engaged. If it is, it immediately disconnects it.

The unit will also follow a flight plan entered on a GPS connected through an interface to the unit, and will even allow you to select tracking up to a mile to the left of right of the course. What this unit has that others don't, however, is a safety feature that we have not seen on any other autopilot.

If you are flying with the autopilot engaged and find yourself in inadvertent IMC, and need to get yourself out of trouble quickly, all you need to do is press the CRS course tracking mode button for five seconds. That single action will immediately instruct the GPS to look at your current course and turn the aircraft around exactly 180 degrees at a maximum bank angle of 15 degrees. This is a very cool feature that is bound to quietly save lives. You can quote us on that.

The EZ Pilot can also track your course to between 50 and 150 feet deviation in smooth air. In turbulence, the autopilot still does a good job of tracking and keeping the wings as level as possible.

All in all, in our opinion this company is demonstrating some seriously good thinking in their selection of features for their product.

FMI: www.trioavionics.com