Avionics News March 2015 - 74
Avidyne's engineering team in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
AVIATION ACES
Continued from page 73
be at the bar horsing around. By the third drink when
everyone's getting rowdy, the future astronauts have
usually called it a night. They're mostly Eagle Scouts like
John Glenn. I'm not one of those guys."
Although he left active duty in 1995 and is happily
married with two adult daughters, technically, he's still in
the Air Force and has flown A-10s in the Connecticut Air
National Guard.
His wife wanted to return to Massachusetts or Rhode
Island, so he accepted a systems engineer job offer from
Draper Labs near Boston. He spent five years there and
became engineering manager for the avionics test group
doing lots of Defense Department and UAV work. He
also found time to earn a master's degree in electrical
engineering.
"One of the cool things at Draper Labs is the
Northeastern University classes were transmitted live into
our offices," he said. "I was going to attend MIT, but that
was more convenient since it also let me keep flying in
the Air National Guard one or two days a week."
In 2000, he dropped by Avidyne's headquarters to visit
a friend and was given a tour.
"They showed me boxes they were creating for general
74
avionics news
*
march
2015
aviation, and I said, 'Neat, but I'm not interested,'"
Jacobson said. "Rick Willard, who used to be a Navy
fighter pilot and became my boss, said, 'Let me show you
what we're really working on.' It was synthetic vision
and highway in the sky stuff. Real cutting edge."
He joined the company and admitted, "It's been pure
bliss ever since."
Like every other company in aviation, Avidyne's had ups
and downs. More than 5,000 Cirrus planes had Avidyne's
cutting-edge avionics in their panels until the market
tanked in 2008. Then, Garmin snagged the account.
"It was a kick in the nuts when Cirrus switched to the
G1000," he said candidly. "We decided to shift gears,
take all of the technology in our R9 platform, and make it
work in the retrofit market. We didn't have a full stack of
instruments, so we had to start building those blocks. We
felt a good entry point was to replace the 430s and 530s
with more capable boxes that included flight management
systems and WAAS, among other things."
Jacobson respects Garmin but believes Avidyne offers
many pilots another solution, particularly those who want
to upgrade without having to rewire their panels.
"You can't replace a Garmin 530 with a Garmin 750,"
he said. "Exchanging those systems requires some pretty
serious reconstruction. Plus, most airplanes don't have
the space for that. It seemed logical to produce a state-
Avionics News March 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News March 2015
Point of Communication
AEA Now
The View from Washington
International News and Regulatory Updates
'Cell'-ular Changes
Member Profile
NextGen Connection
Avionics Corrosion Control
Member Profile
AEA Convention Information
Business Basics
What's Working?
Aviation Insurance 101
Legal Ease
A Conversation With...
Best Advice
Aviation Aces
Honoring our Heroes
What's New
Before & After
Marketplace Classifieds
Avionics News March 2015 - Intro
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover1
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover2
Avionics News March 2015 - 1
Avionics News March 2015 - 2
Avionics News March 2015 - 3
Avionics News March 2015 - Point of Communication
Avionics News March 2015 - 5
Avionics News March 2015 - AEA Now
Avionics News March 2015 - 7
Avionics News March 2015 - 8
Avionics News March 2015 - 9
Avionics News March 2015 - 10
Avionics News March 2015 - 11
Avionics News March 2015 - The View from Washington
Avionics News March 2015 - 13
Avionics News March 2015 - International News and Regulatory Updates
Avionics News March 2015 - 15
Avionics News March 2015 - 16
Avionics News March 2015 - 17
Avionics News March 2015 - 'Cell'-ular Changes
Avionics News March 2015 - 19
Avionics News March 2015 - 20
Avionics News March 2015 - 21
Avionics News March 2015 - Member Profile
Avionics News March 2015 - 23
Avionics News March 2015 - 24
Avionics News March 2015 - 25
Avionics News March 2015 - NextGen Connection
Avionics News March 2015 - 27
Avionics News March 2015 - 28
Avionics News March 2015 - 29
Avionics News March 2015 - 30
Avionics News March 2015 - 31
Avionics News March 2015 - Avionics Corrosion Control
Avionics News March 2015 - 33
Avionics News March 2015 - 34
Avionics News March 2015 - 35
Avionics News March 2015 - 36
Avionics News March 2015 - 37
Avionics News March 2015 - Member Profile
Avionics News March 2015 - 39
Avionics News March 2015 - 40
Avionics News March 2015 - 41
Avionics News March 2015 - 42
Avionics News March 2015 - AEA Convention Information
Avionics News March 2015 - 44
Avionics News March 2015 - 45
Avionics News March 2015 - 46
Avionics News March 2015 - 47
Avionics News March 2015 - 48
Avionics News March 2015 - 49
Avionics News March 2015 - 50
Avionics News March 2015 - 51
Avionics News March 2015 - Business Basics
Avionics News March 2015 - 53
Avionics News March 2015 - 54
Avionics News March 2015 - 55
Avionics News March 2015 - What's Working?
Avionics News March 2015 - 57
Avionics News March 2015 - 58
Avionics News March 2015 - 59
Avionics News March 2015 - Aviation Insurance 101
Avionics News March 2015 - 61
Avionics News March 2015 - Legal Ease
Avionics News March 2015 - 63
Avionics News March 2015 - 64
Avionics News March 2015 - 65
Avionics News March 2015 - A Conversation With...
Avionics News March 2015 - 67
Avionics News March 2015 - Best Advice
Avionics News March 2015 - 69
Avionics News March 2015 - 70
Avionics News March 2015 - 71
Avionics News March 2015 - Aviation Aces
Avionics News March 2015 - 73
Avionics News March 2015 - 74
Avionics News March 2015 - 75
Avionics News March 2015 - Honoring our Heroes
Avionics News March 2015 - 77
Avionics News March 2015 - 78
Avionics News March 2015 - 79
Avionics News March 2015 - What's New
Avionics News March 2015 - 81
Avionics News March 2015 - 82
Avionics News March 2015 - 83
Avionics News March 2015 - 84
Avionics News March 2015 - Before & After
Avionics News March 2015 - Marketplace Classifieds
Avionics News March 2015 - 87
Avionics News March 2015 - 88
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover3
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover4
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