Avionics News April 2021 - 55

mary flight display systems with synthetic-vision capabilities. The
options are considerable, and the suppliers numerous and varied.
For example, Garmin's G3 Touch system provides the functional equivalent of a terrain-alerting system. Ditto for Garmin's GTN
GPS navigators. And the Garmin G500, G500 TXi, and G600 and
G600 TXi systems combine the MFD and PFD into a single unit,
all of which offer synthetic vision and color-coded terrain. The
same can be said for Garmin's flagship G1000 NXi, G3000, and
G5000 integrated avionics packages.
Integrated avionics packages from Avidyne, Collins and Honeywell also offer similar products. And both Collins and Honeywell
offer stand-alone terrain alert and warning systems for retrofit into
general-aviation and business-turbine aircraft.
Unlike earlier systems, which worked like a radar altimeter,
today's modern systems employ a WAAS GPS navigation system
for position, altitude and speed data and highly detailed databases
of terrain and obstacles. The GPS receiver supplies its data for
comparison to the database of terrain and obstacles.
When the TAWS processor determines that the existing route
and altitude will bring the aircraft into proximity with the obstacle
or terrain, the processor, acting as its brain, sounds an alarm and

highlights the warning on the chosen display.
Programmed to give an alert within a set period of time, the
system takes into account the speed of the aircraft. The faster the
plane is approaching the obstacle or terrain encounter, the farther
away from the threat the system sounds its alert.
And to help avoid false alerts, the system's database includes
the location of all airports and uses that knowledge to determine when the aircraft is in the airport pattern and descending
for landing.
User beware
All these technology tools provide the kind of help pilots
need to avoid CFIT or avoid a collision with an obstacle. But
none of these systems work if the flight crew is insensitive to
the alarms being sounded.
In a future story in Avionics News, we'll examine how
pilots learn to ignore such alerts, just as they've learned to
ignore other warning alarms, such as stall-warning horns,
gear-up alerts and others.
All of these warning systems are only as good as the user
operating them. q

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2021

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Avionics News April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News April 2021