Avionics News July 2014 - 54

AVIDYNE'S IFD540

Continued from page 52

needlessly scroll through letters and digits for each
position in an identifier, based on your current location.
Filing a flight plan from one airport to another? If
airways connect, the 540 offers you the chance to add
each one or all at once.
Need to file instrument flight rules? It can anticipate
frequencies and offer you a choice of routings.
Need to vector around airspace, traffic or weather?
Touch the color-coded route line and drag it in the proper
direction so it curves - or rubber bands - around the area
you want to avoid. No interruption to your flight plan or
progress - and if the autopilot or FMS are flying off the
GPS, the airplane will follow the altered path.
Touch the "FREQ" button and the IFD540 lists the
nearby actives, with the one it believes you'll likely need
ready to go into "STNDBY" at another touch.
When programming a route, the IFD540 nominates the
most-likely next fix by showing it as an offer to accept
or reject; accept and the IFD540 goes on to nominate the
next fix likely needed.
The IFD allows the user to control it with the
old, familiar concentric knobs to enter waypoints or
frequencies. But the IFD540 also provides a pop-up
QWERTY-style input system. And as you modify a route,
the display map shows the proposed change in cyan,
allowing the user to confirm the route works as intended.
The IFD540 stores all the airways, fixes, procedures
and other info in its own internal database. When pilots
select an airway originating at a fix, the subsequent fixes
appear so you can pick a transition point or destination
on the airway.
The IFD540 also knows enough to let you skip
entering the "1" and "0" when you elect to dial a new
comm frequency independent of using the list of mostlikely frequencies the box automatically nominates. For
example, to key in 134.80 megahertz, you need to touch
only "348." The box's brain anticipated the "1" and "0."
Of course, as with virtually all new GPS navigators,
the IFD540 GPS navigator provides full WAAS
capabilities, qualifying it to fly LPV precision-GPS
approaches. It is approved as an ADS-B position source.
Also indigenous to the IFD540 is its terrain awareness
and warning function, which a software update can
upgrade to TAWS-B. The IFD540 warns of obstacles as
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avionics news

july

2014

well as descent toward terrain - showing in bright red
either the obstruction ahead or the anticipated impact
area on the ground.
The one thing no photo, illustration or chart can show
is how easily these functions are learned.
The happy customers can start now by downloading
and using Avidyne's IFD540 simulator and an online
tutorial while the shop completes the installations and
paperwork processes.
Customers should start early. The time needed
to complete the swap is barely enough to read the
introductory materials, but more than enough to get an
IFD540 customer on the way to mastery.
Delayed gratification: Customers ready for
IFDs, expect it to prove worth the wait
In the early hours of a previous AirVenture in
Oshkosh, Avidyne stood among a vanguard of avionics
companies announcing new equipment using a touchsensitive interface.
The IFD440 and IFD540 promised plug-and-play ease
of upgrade to the owners of thousands of units from other
manufacturers already flying. Based in Massachusetts,
Avidyne banked on a delay-free certification process -
oh, and the plug-and-play feature.
But before Avidyne can win points for ease-ofinstallation, it needs to win its working papers from the
FAA.
As of April, Avidyne appeared near to TSO and
certification of the first of its two new units in time for
this year's AirVenture in Oshkosh.
"We expect, if progress continues as it's been, to be
shipping before Oshkosh, so dealers can have them to
deliver," Jacobson said. "June is our time frame. We're
down to the last phases before finishing this," he said
after demonstrating the full range of features indigenous
to the IFD540, which leaves Avidyne's entire plug-andplay product-design approach a major factor once it
becomes available.
As Jacobson demonstrated in detail during a 40-minute
familiarization flight - which followed 15 minutes on the
ground for an introduction to the IFD540 - the unit hits
its marks right out of the box. And as noted, the box can
be ready to work in minutes - leaving the balance of an
hour for the installer to complete the legal aspects of the
project: paperwork.
For more information, visit www.avidyne.com. q

http://www.avidyne.com

Avionics News July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2014