Avionics News December 2015 - 22

FMS EVOLUTION FOR LIGHT GA
Continued from page 21

pads and analog, monochromatic CRT displays to wholly
digital systems with color displays.
The reduced workload and increased automation helped
make the transition happen.
Can't stand still
Of course, as we've come to expect in aviation, equipment
built for and certified to airline standards can cost more than
the entire cost of a new piston general aviation aircraft. Even if
affordable, the size and power requirements of early FMS units
precluded their use on most small aircraft.
That began to change about 20 years ago, with the advent
of new digital navigation and display technology in general
aviation cockpits amid the deployment of GPS satellites and the
earliest IFR GPS navigators.
The merger of IFR-capable GPS navigators with computer
memory capable of storing airport and waypoint location data,
as well as instrument procedures displayed on a graphics screen,
helped birth the earliest of today's affordable FMS options. With
storage of airways and jetways, waypoints, navigation stations,
airports and runway information, the earliest IFR GPS navigators lacked only the ability to automatically sequence an entire
flight plan, from engagement after takeoff through a published
approach right down to minimum altitude for that approach.
Technology advances closed the gap, leaving the flight crew
- whether one or two - free to monitor the flight, work the
radios, move the landing gear and flap handles, and change the
throttle to a setting appropriate for each phase of the flight.
Take attitude data from a digital source, guided by WAAS
GPS or other satellite-based navigation equipment, and connect
an output signal from the GPS to the autopilot, and the pilot
possesses all the functions of an FMS.
As IFR WAAS navigators increase in numbers and decline in
price, the option of retrofit-installation avionics can elevate the
aircraft's capabilities and gain the most affordable FMS ever.
These packages deliver the option to put FMS in any cockpit,
from business-turbine aircraft through piston general aviation
aircraft right down to the light sport level.
Pioneering small-plane FMS solutions
These late-model, more affordable FMS systems first arrived in the form of the all-in-one navigator and communication package.
Although pilots probably don't consider it so, the first all-inone GPS/VHF avionics packages gave general aviation its first
FMS options: Garmin's groundbreaking GNS 430 and GNS
530, and their GPS-only kin, the GPS 400 and GPS 500. With
the GNS models navigation displays, push-and-turn-button
22

avionics news

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december

2015

input controls and precise navigation receivers in the GPS, the
boxes offered most of the best features of earlier FMS units -
plus an integral graphical moving map display to illustrate a
flight's progress; their VHF nav and comm sections were icing
on the FMS cake. The GPS-only models deliver the same FMS
capabilities but without the VHF radios.
It was the addition of WAAS GPS to the GNS 430 and 530
that brought them closer to the full capabilities of a turbinecockpit FMS. But only if connected to an autopilot that could
be driven by the GPS signal - indirectly through an indicator
driving the autopilot, typically.
Garmin took the FMS capabilities up another notch by integrating all the hardware - attitude, air data, position information, database memory and control - into one integrated system,
the company's pioneering G1000 system.
Between the GNS-series and the G1000 packages, Garmin
helped advance the penetration of FMS capabilities into general
aviation. GNS radios and G1000 installations cover a wide
spectrum, from light jets down to piston singles. And the G1000
can even integrate Garmin's digital autopilot system, more
closely aligning the attitude sensing and autopilot control.
As the GNS series was gobbling up market share, New
England-based Avidyne was developing the Entegra FMS900w.
This unit more closely resembles a traditional FMS, sporting a
control unit dominated by its own full alphanumeric keyboard
and a dedicated five-line alphanumeric display.
Avidyne designed this unit for use with a separate display,
such as one of its own Entegra multifunction displays. The
FMS900w slips into the slot typically occupied by a dual GNS
430 installation, while also providing full GPS/WAAS and nav/
comm functions.
Avidyne's Release 9 package gave some competition to the
G1000 package, and simplified use of the FMS functions beyond anything else flying when it was unveiled. Today, the pool
of FMS-like packages continues to grow.
More one-box solutions arrive
Avidyne's IFD 540 and IFD 440 - respectively, plug-andplay replacements for the GNS 530 and GNS 430 - add depth
to that company's FMS-like offerings while bringing more of
the logical interface Avidyne delivered in its Release 9 package.
These two stand-alone packages also bring to aviation the flexibility and utility of touch-control display screens. Coupled with
a digital PFD such as Aspen's Evolution 1000 and an autopilot -Avidyne's DFC90 or DFC100 - and the FMS package is
complete.
Garmin also rides the touchscreen control tide with its GTN
650 and GTN 750, the company's replacements for the two
GNS models that for so long dominated the all-in-one, FMSin-a-box market. In addition to their touch-sensitive display
screens, the GTN pair also provide much-larger, more-colorful



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News December 2015

Avionics News December 2015 - Intro
Avionics News December 2015 - Cover1
Avionics News December 2015 - Cover2
Avionics News December 2015 - 1
Avionics News December 2015 - 2
Avionics News December 2015 - 3
Avionics News December 2015 - 4
Avionics News December 2015 - 5
Avionics News December 2015 - 6
Avionics News December 2015 - 7
Avionics News December 2015 - 8
Avionics News December 2015 - 9
Avionics News December 2015 - 10
Avionics News December 2015 - 11
Avionics News December 2015 - 12
Avionics News December 2015 - 13
Avionics News December 2015 - 14
Avionics News December 2015 - 15
Avionics News December 2015 - 16
Avionics News December 2015 - 17
Avionics News December 2015 - 18
Avionics News December 2015 - 19
Avionics News December 2015 - 20
Avionics News December 2015 - 21
Avionics News December 2015 - 22
Avionics News December 2015 - 23
Avionics News December 2015 - 24
Avionics News December 2015 - 25
Avionics News December 2015 - 26
Avionics News December 2015 - 27
Avionics News December 2015 - 28
Avionics News December 2015 - 29
Avionics News December 2015 - 30
Avionics News December 2015 - 31
Avionics News December 2015 - 32
Avionics News December 2015 - 33
Avionics News December 2015 - 34
Avionics News December 2015 - 35
Avionics News December 2015 - 36
Avionics News December 2015 - 37
Avionics News December 2015 - 38
Avionics News December 2015 - 39
Avionics News December 2015 - 40
Avionics News December 2015 - 41
Avionics News December 2015 - 42
Avionics News December 2015 - 43
Avionics News December 2015 - 44
Avionics News December 2015 - 45
Avionics News December 2015 - 46
Avionics News December 2015 - 47
Avionics News December 2015 - 48
Avionics News December 2015 - 49
Avionics News December 2015 - 50
Avionics News December 2015 - 51
Avionics News December 2015 - 52
Avionics News December 2015 - 53
Avionics News December 2015 - 54
Avionics News December 2015 - 55
Avionics News December 2015 - 56
Avionics News December 2015 - 57
Avionics News December 2015 - 58
Avionics News December 2015 - 59
Avionics News December 2015 - 60
Avionics News December 2015 - 61
Avionics News December 2015 - 62
Avionics News December 2015 - 63
Avionics News December 2015 - 64
Avionics News December 2015 - 65
Avionics News December 2015 - 66
Avionics News December 2015 - 67
Avionics News December 2015 - 68
Avionics News December 2015 - 69
Avionics News December 2015 - 70
Avionics News December 2015 - 71
Avionics News December 2015 - 72
Avionics News December 2015 - Cover3
Avionics News December 2015 - Cover4
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