Also Intros 15-Inch Envision Displays
Avidyne Corporation had a message for pilots, manufacturers, and
the general aviation industry as a whole Monday at AirVenture 2008:
the company's back, and anyone who had written them off should take
notice.
After ceding much of the GA glass panel market -- a market
pretty much Avidyne created, with its Envision flight deck -- to
rival Garmin, Avidyne knew it had to offer a knockout punch in
order to stand any chance of regaining market share. The avionics
manufacturer has done it by combining Synthetic Vision (SVS) and
Enhanced Vision (EVS) with large-format 15-inch Integrated Flight
Displays (IFDs).
Avidyne says its Entegra SVS offers improvements over existing
systems by depicting 3D terrain all the way out to the horizon,
based on the aircraft's altitude above the ground. The Avidyne
system also depicts obstacles, traffic and "Highway-in-the-Sky"
(HITS) boxes on the PFD, enhancing the utility of the airplane,
improving the comfort level of passengers, and increasing the
safety of each flight.
The company builds on that capability by offering Entegra EVS
enhanced vision, using a Max-Viz EVS-100 infrared camera. EVS is
designed to turn night into day, enabling pilots to see up to ten
times further in marginal VFR conditions through most atmospheric
obscurations. With SVS and EVS, pilots can now fly comfortably at
night, enjoying clear views of the ground, seeing emergency landing
fields, roads, lakes, and buildings.
"Since we launched the all-glass flight deck revolution for
general aviation in 2003 with Entegra, we have continued to provide
the most up-to-date avionics systems available by paying close
attention to user interface and integration," noted Dan Schwinn,
Avidyne's president. "We're continuing that tradition with our SVS
and EVS offerings which increase situational awareness and add
another level of safety enhancement for GA pilots," he added.
"Avidyne brings a new level of performance to the display of
synthetic vision in GA aircraft," said Steve Jacobson, vice
president of Product Management. "The Entegra SVS provides a
constant level of detail during rendering, resulting in a smooth,
real-world transition in the representation of terrain features as
they grow nearer rather than a sudden 'morphing' of their shapes,"
he added.
Pricing and availability of SVS and EVS upgrades for Entegra
will be announced at a future date, as part of Avidyne's on-going
Entegra upgrade announcements. Avidyne will demonstrate the new SVS
and EVS systems at its booth, 2098-2101, in Hangar B at
AirVenture.