Avionics News July 2015 - 48

GARMIN'S G3X TOUCH
Continued from page 47

Things that go bump in the flight
"The G3X Touch name is kind of a misnomer because
there are so many things you can do on it without using the
touchscreen," Hupe said. "The goal was to create an intuitive and easy-to-use interface with the combination of the
dedicated buttons and knobs and the touchscreen capabilities.
The G3X Touch was truly designed to be used in any flight
conditions.
"When you start talking touchscreens, people usually bring
up turbulence and how that all works. We live in a real flight
world, so like our new GTN series, we created features on the
G3X Touch's bezel that give you places to brace your hand so
you can stabilize it and do your data entry. The position and
size of the touch buttons also was key to ensure pilots could
easily access and use them while bracing their hand.
"I think that's an important point for this market. I think
a lot of people fly with an iPad already and they may have
a tough time in turbulence. But remember, the iPad was not
designed from the beginning to be used in an airplane. The
G3X Touch was."
Twisty-turney and touchy-feely
Hupe also said that people who are familiar with the way you
can choose to use the knobs or touchscreen menus to tune the
Garmin GTN series will feel right at home with the G3X Touch.
"Like other Garmin units, the dual concentric knobs can be
used for frequency tuning or other functions like heading and
altitude bug adjustments, baro settings or waypoint entry," he
said. "If the pilot wants to touch the screen to find information
about a waypoint, they can do that, too."
Speaking of the touchscreen, Hupe explained that the technology behind it is based on infrared sensing. Basically, a
bunch of tiny projectors are spaced along the side of the bezel
creating a lattice pattern of beams along the x- and y-axis of
the display surface. So when you touch the screen, you break
those beams, and that's how it detects your finger's position
and movement.
"Because the infrared touchscreen doesn't require hardware
overlaid on the display, it creates a very clean and bright display
that can be easily operated with gloves. Speaking of the display,
the 10.6-inch GDU 460 and 465 are very high resolution, 1,280by-768 pixel density. And the 7-inch GDU 450 and 455 have an
800-by-480 pixel density.
"Add to that high-quality glass on the displays and there is
absolutely no touchscreen distortion or display pooling like you
might get on a computer monitor. This was important to ensure
the best quality display presentation while using the touchscreen."

AVIONICS NEWS

JULY

2015

More than just a pretty face
Hupe said that while Garmin's G3X Touch is loaded with all
the company's top features and functions like synthetic vision,
Bluetooth wireless integration with iPads and moving maps, it
adds some additional capabilities to the list.
One interesting new capability, in particular, is along with the
standard fuel-range-rings; the G3X Touch now offers a gliderange-ring function.
"The pilot inputs a few performance parameters like best
glide speed and the associated vertical speed, and the system
will automatically draw a set of dynamic glide rings based on
the aircraft's altitude, wind direction and other parameters to
show you which airports are within your reach," Hupe said.
"It's insurance we hope you don't have to use.
"The system also features the ability for users to display
airspeed and altitude tapes or a more traditional six-pack, round
dial configuration. We've found that this is important to the
LSA and experimental markets because so many of those pilots
have grown up on the six-pack, and this capability makes their
transition to glass that much more comfortable.
"It also features integrated autopilot capabilities. While the
system does integrate with many third-party autopilots, we offer
a fully-integrated Garmin solution featuring our own GSA 28
smart servos. The servo design has leveraged knowledge gained
on the certified product line. They have also enabled us to bring
features never seen before in the experimental market."
Hupe explained that, for example, Garmin's smart servos can
command the aircraft's auto trim when the autopilot is engaged
and will alleviate the force the servo would normally be holding during cruise. Basically, it's a self-trimming device.
In addition, when the autopilot is not engaged, the smart servos deliver "speed selected trim," which adjusts the trim motor
speed based on the aircraft's speed.
"When you are flying along in cruise, you want the trim
motor to run slower so it does not cause a big pitch deviation
when you make a trim adjustment," he explained. "When you
are in the pattern and you want it to run faster, the servo has the
smarts to make the adjustment for you."
Keeping the blue side up
Smart servos aren't the only type of pilot-aiding technologies you'll find in the G3X Touch. Garmin has introduced
Electronic Stability and Protection for the G3X Touch with
Garmin autopilot servos.
"The goal with ESP-X (the "X" is for the experimental version) is to provide a level of aircraft stability augmentation or
upset control for LSA and experimental aircraft," Hupe said.
"The user defines the pitch, roll and airspeed limits of the system for their aircraft's performance.
"Then, when they're flying and the autopilot is not
engaged, the ESP-X monitors the aircraft's entire performance

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