Plastic Pilot

Today is full of news from the modern general aviation world. On the good side, Cirrus and G1000 finally meet, on the bad side, tensions between Diamond and Thielert get more serious.

Good thing first - the so-called “Cirrus Perspective” will integrate the Garmin 1000. From the videos available on the Cirrus website and on AviationWorld , it’s clearly more than simply fitting the G1000 in the plane. There are adaptations to the autopilot, an integrated keyboard to avoid too-much of knob-turning, and a go-around button on the throttle, like in jets.

Press the go-around button, and the autopilot will disconnect from approach mode, and the flight director will dictate a pitch-up attitude. Fly it, push the throttle forward, and here you go. Pressing this button will also activate the missed-approach segment in the GPS. That’s probably the most advanced integration of G1000 ever, and makes the Cirrus Perspective a very seriously equipped high performance single. I just miss the budget right now

Budget also seems to be at the core of increased tensions between Diamond and Thielert, following the bankruptcy of the German diesel engine manufacturer. According to AVweb coverage, the bankruptcy administrator did not accept any of the Diamond proposals to buy spare parts. Owners have to pay for their replacement parts (gear box and the infamous high-pressure pumps) upfront, and organize delivery by themselves.

The good news on the AustroEngine front are certainly good on medium to long term, particularly as a retrofit will be possible, but certification is not expected before next year. The present situation of DA40 and DA42 owners is complex, but Diamond does its best to support them.

My previous bet was that Diamond would buy significant assets from Thielert, but it’s less likely to happen if the Thielert’s bankruptcy administrator simply tries to make as much money as possible, instead of looking for the company future…

Once again, Garmin announced a spectacular improvement to its already spectacular G1000 integrated avionics suite: synthetic vision ! This new enhancement uses a terrain and obstacles database to display a 3D representation of what the pilot would see if he looked outside.

This will greatly improve situational awareness, particularly in marginal VFR conditions. If everything is going well, IFR pilots should not require it, but it can nevertheless be of great help. I remember some non-precision approaches with cross-wind in bad visibility where finding the runway was not that easy.

Synthetic vision won’t replace any approach guidance, but knowing exactly where to look out for a runway can make the difference between landing and go-around. The Highway In The Sky (HITS) display mode shows the path to be flown using rectangles. Fly through them, and you’ll stay on course, it’s that easy.

This system is also able to display traffic information (if available), in the form of yellow / red circles displayed at a correct point in space. I can’t recall the number of times ATC signaled me a traffic that I never saw. Here again, sythetic vision could make the difference.

I did not flew this system now, but I hope to do that as soon as it will be available. Not only it represents a step forward in safety… but it also looks so funny. And as long as pilots will remember to look outside when flying VFR, everything will be fine.

Links:

Garmin Press Release

Aero-news coverage, with several pictures

PS: Between the press release and the time this post went online, both Cessna and Diamond said they will retrofit this new feature on their G1000 equipped planes

UPDATE (10th of April): a new information from Aero-news, this time with a video ! Really impressive, but don’t fly with all the terrain in red… Here it is.