Avionics News July 2022 - 57

you sure you want to keep on your present heading?
There's a thunderstorm straight ahead of you.' Clearly,
we had to get the raw data, but it was all done with
adequate safety margins. "
16 colors and more
Reducing the pilot's workload while delivering
more weather information is no doubt the GWX
8000 StormOptix's biggest benefit. Johnson said a
close second is the system's unique ability to show
said weather in up to 16 colors - well, not actually
16 different colors, but 16 varying shades and tones
of green, yellow, red and magenta. Still, the result is
quite impressive.
" It's beneficial because when you look at the
standard four colors that ARINC 708 specifies, it
can be difficult for pilots to interpret where and
how rapidly the colors changed on the display, " he
explained. " Areas with tight color shifts often have
greater turbulence. With old systems, you had to ride
the gain control up and down to try and see what is
happening in an area. It's a lot more work for the pilot.
" With our 16 colors, you can easily see the severity
of the various color contours now. If it's a gradual
change from one color to the next, it's clearly not as
severe. At least not along the edges. It's just another
tool to fly more safely, and there's a lot of value in
that. "
While the 3D volumetric scanning and 16-colorcapable
display are amazing, they are just the
beginning of what the GWX 8000 StormOptix radar
brings to the cockpit. Johnson noted that among its
other category-leading capabilities, the GWX 8000
also provides lighting and hail prediction, turbulence
detection, Weather Attenuated Color Highlight
(WATCH) technology and an intriguing new feature
called Zero Blind Range. Garmin also offers predictive
windshear detection as an option.
" It (Zero Blind Range) is actually a very interesting
capability, " Johnson explained. " Where other radars
have a blind time when the pulse has left the airplane
and hasn't yet returned (we're talking milliseconds
here), with the high volume of space we're scanning
and analyzing, we've eliminated that problem. The
GWX 8000 stores all that information and uses it
to display all the weather to the nose of the aircraft
regardless of where the pulses are.
" Of course, we never advise flying into any storm
regardless of the display. But the ability to clearly
see what is really close to the front of the aircraft is a
valuable tool for planning course deviations. "
Another useful GWX 8000 capability is the
aforementioned WATCH technology. Often, heavy
precipitation from one cell can mask the weather behind
it. You can make a turn to avoid one cell only to find
another waiting in the shadows behind it.
Garmin's WATCH helps mitigate that problem by
identifying areas where these shadows occur while
highlighting areas where the radar pulse returns are
weakened or attenuated by intense precipitation. It
may not show you all the details, but it can highlight
areas worth a closer examination.
GWX 8000 appearing in a cockpit near you
As for what aircraft types Garmin's targeting for
the GWX 8000 StormOptix system, Johnson said that
because of its compact R/T, it will likely fit in any
high-performance Part 23 and turbine-powered Part 25
airplane and many helicopters.
" We have a range of antenna sizes from 10-inch up
to 18-inch for the GWX 8000, " he said. " So it easily
fits in wing pods like those found on the Piper M600. "
While there's a lot of installation flexibility,
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