In the latest AOPA magazine there is an article on one of the latest
Diamond aircraft which is equipped with dual Garmin G1000's.

I was really impressed in many ways by the units. Compared to a
normal AI, the things are HUGE, they're something like 10.5 inches
diagonally. It's like looking at the horizon through a window instead
of seeing a representation on a little 3.5" instrument.

The problem, as always, is the price. You can get tiny screens like
that of the Dynon EFIS for around $2,000, but apparently when you
expand to large screen size, the cost goes up astronomically. It's a
bit tough to nail down exactly what one of these units costs but I'd
venture to say that $30,000 to $40,000 might cover it, maybe.

And of course you'd need two, one to display the artificial horizon,
the other to do the GPS chores as depicted in the Garmin website
picture, although both would be capable of all functions of course.
Imagine having as much in two instruments as you would normally expect
to pay for an entire airplane, WITH a certified aircraft engine. That
last sentence was for BOb. ;-)

Corky Scott

> The problem, as always, is the price. You can get tiny screens like
> that of the Dynon EFIS for around $2,000, but apparently when you
> expand to large screen size, the cost goes up astronomically. It's a
> bit tough to nail down exactly what one of these units costs but I'd
> venture to say that $30,000 to $40,000 might cover it, maybe.

I doubt that the cost is the screen. More likely, it's the
certification. It's probably Class B $oftware, maybe Cla$$ A $oftware,
and they've probably done a bunch of user interface testing and
prototyping and requirements analysis and documentation and all kinds of
things you don't have to do for "experimental" equipment. It's lots more
expensive to do things that way than to put something together that
seems to work and looks okay to the designer. Please note this is a
generic comment, and NOT a comment on the Dynon, as I know nothing about
its development, reliability, user testing, or anything else.

Again, not a comment on Dynon, I heard that there was a PDA based
standby attitude indicator shown at AirVenture a year or two ago. If you
shook the sensor, it would lose its recollection of which way was up,
and would show erroneous information with no warning flags. The
"solution" was to turn it off for two minutes.

After all the safety, certification, and human factors I've been exposed
to, I get real leery of all avionics, and not just the experimental...

Ed Wischmeyer

Check out www.bluemountainavionics.com


"Corky Scott" > wrote in message
...
> In the latest AOPA magazine there is an article on one of the latest
> Diamond aircraft which is equipped with dual Garmin G1000's.
>
> I was really impressed in many ways by the units. Compared to a
> normal AI, the things are HUGE, they're something like 10.5 inches
> diagonally. It's like looking at the horizon through a window instead
> of seeing a representation on a little 3.5" instrument.
>
> The problem, as always, is the price. You can get tiny screens like
> that of the Dynon EFIS for around $2,000, but apparently when you
> expand to large screen size, the cost goes up astronomically. It's a
> bit tough to nail down exactly what one of these units costs but I'd
> venture to say that $30,000 to $40,000 might cover it, maybe.
>
> And of course you'd need two, one to display the artificial horizon,
> the other to do the GPS chores as depicted in the Garmin website
> picture, although both would be capable of all functions of course.
> Imagine having as much in two instruments as you would normally expect
> to pay for an entire airplane, WITH a certified aircraft engine. That
> last sentence was for BOb. ;-)
>
> Corky Scott

They claim that when installed in a Cessna it cost no more then the
conventional avionics it replaces. Unfortunately, you cannot get one for an
older aircraft as they are only available in the new ones which are offered
with this option. You'd have to wait until 2005 to buy one of the new Cessna
182 or 206 models with a G1000 as they are already sold out for 2004. They
can't make the damn things fast enough to keep up with the demand.

"Gig Giacona" > wrote in message
...
> Check out www.bluemountainavionics.com
>
>
> "Corky Scott" > wrote in message
> ...
>> In the latest AOPA magazine there is an article on one of the latest
>> Diamond aircraft which is equipped with dual Garmin G1000's.
>>
>> I was really impressed in many ways by the units. Compared to a
>> normal AI, the things are HUGE, they're something like 10.5 inches
>> diagonally. It's like looking at the horizon through a window instead
>> of seeing a representation on a little 3.5" instrument.
>>
>> The problem, as always, is the price. You can get tiny screens like
>> that of the Dynon EFIS for around $2,000, but apparently when you
>> expand to large screen size, the cost goes up astronomically. It's a
>> bit tough to nail down exactly what one of these units costs but I'd
>> venture to say that $30,000 to $40,000 might cover it, maybe.
>>
>> And of course you'd need two, one to display the artificial horizon,
>> the other to do the GPS chores as depicted in the Garmin website
>> picture, although both would be capable of all functions of course.
>> Imagine having as much in two instruments as you would normally expect
>> to pay for an entire airplane, WITH a certified aircraft engine. That
>> last sentence was for BOb. ;-)
>>
>> Corky Scott
>
>

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 19:41:11 GMT "John E. Carty" > wrote:

> They claim that when installed in a Cessna it cost no more then the
> conventional avionics it replaces. Unfortunately, you cannot get one for an
> older aircraft as they are only available in the new ones which are offered
> with this option. You'd have to wait until 2005 to buy one of the new Cessna
> 182 or 206 models with a G1000 as they are already sold out for 2004. They
> can't make the damn things fast enough to keep up with the demand.


Time to look into Nasdaq: GRMN
If they're doing this well they are dominating their market space.
And with their recent purchase of UPS they look to be expanding into
commercial cockpits too.



R. Hubbell


>
> "Gig Giacona" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Check out www.bluemountainavionics.com
> >
> >
> > "Corky Scott" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >> In the latest AOPA magazine there is an article on one of the latest
> >> Diamond aircraft which is equipped with dual Garmin G1000's.
> >>
> >> I was really impressed in many ways by the units. Compared to a
> >> normal AI, the things are HUGE, they're something like 10.5 inches
> >> diagonally. It's like looking at the horizon through a window instead
> >> of seeing a representation on a little 3.5" instrument.
> >>
> >> The problem, as always, is the price. You can get tiny screens like
> >> that of the Dynon EFIS for around $2,000, but apparently when you
> >> expand to large screen size, the cost goes up astronomically. It's a
> >> bit tough to nail down exactly what one of these units costs but I'd
> >> venture to say that $30,000 to $40,000 might cover it, maybe.
> >>
> >> And of course you'd need two, one to display the artificial horizon,
> >> the other to do the GPS chores as depicted in the Garmin website
> >> picture, although both would be capable of all functions of course.
> >> Imagine having as much in two instruments as you would normally expect
> >> to pay for an entire airplane, WITH a certified aircraft engine. That
> >> last sentence was for BOb. ;-)
> >>
> >> Corky Scott
> >
> >
>
>