AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2012 - 82

P&E

AVIONICS
and vintage airplanes that lack electrical systems, or have extremely limited space behind their instrument panels. Aerobatic pilots flying airplanes without gyros to and from contests and airshows are likely customers, as well as glider pilots. And the D1 also is sure to be a hit among ferry pilots. I used to know a World War II-era test pilot who, after a particularly harrowing nighttime electrical failure, brought an electric turn-and-slip indicator and a spare battery with him whenever he ferried an aircraft. If everything else in the

descending. If it shifts in flight or becomes detached from its mount, it could create real problems. Finally, the unit isn’t tied into the pitot/static system, so it can’t show indicated airspeed or barometric altitude (only GPS-derived groundspeed and altitude). And the compass heading it displays is actually the airplane’s ground track, so pilots must keep these differences in mind, particularly while maneuvering in strong winds. The D1 is ideal for Light Sport aircraft

Industry leading CO Detection technology and reliability make the AERO 454 a great value already. The newest model now does more than ever! The 454 Model integrated with the panel Garmin GPS receivers, will enable up to THREE OCCUPANTS to receive aircraft GPS data via Bluetooth on their portable devices to monitor their current location.

JOINING PANEL-MOUNT TO PORTABLE ASPEN AVIONICS has received FAA supplemental type certification of its much anticipated Connected Panel system. Announced a year ago, the system allows a remotely mounted WiFi box produced by Aspen to become a communications conduit between the aircraft’s panel-mount systems and portable devices, such as an iPad or smartphone. We had the chance to conduct a flight demonstration of Connected Panel recently from Double Eagle II Airport near Aspen’s Albuquerque headquarters. Flying in the company’s Cirrus SR22 demonstrator, we created a flight plan on an iPad using the ForeFlight electronic flight bag app and with the touch of the Send button watched it get validated by the Aspen multifunction display. A touch of a button on the MFD pumped the flight plan over to the Garmin GNS 430 navigator, dramatically simplifying the loading of flight plans. No more knob turning on the Garmins. Because the EFB is not certified, the FAA requires the certified Aspen system to verify the validWEB

FLY CONNECTED

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ity of the waypoints sent over and then requires the pilot to accept the data through the button touch. En route, a similar process allows easy changes to flight plans—or DirectTo—as ATC issues reroutes. Similarly, the pilot can make changes in the panel-mount system and ship them back to the handheld device. The iPad sees the WiFi signal from the Connected Gateway box mounted behind the panel as just another wireless network connection, automatically connecting every time the iPad is in range after the initial setup. In fact, multiple WiFienabled devices in the cockpit can interface through the Gateway at the same time.

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82 | AOPA PILOT October 2012

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2012