Touchscreen control is standard equipment on most of Garmin’s road navigators and at NBAA in Orlando this week, Garmin says the same will soon be true for cockpit EFIS. Garmin announced the new G3000, a touchscreen (and widescreen) follow-on to its popular G1000 suite. The new EFIS is aimed a light turboprops and will be ready for market in a couple of years.
Meanwhile, a working mockup of the new system revealed 14.1 inch landscape aspect display screens with WXGA resolution which gives Garmin’s synthetic visual a lifelike snap. On the MFD side, the screen can be split into two vertical pages to allow reading an approach plate on one side, a map or weather display on the other.
The touchscreen function happens on a pair of what Garmin calls GTC570 vehicle management systems, which live below the screens on a pedestal mount. These are actually smaller display screens that have touch-controlled operating menus with logic similar to computers, including “back” and “home” functions to simply operation. There are some knobs and buttons, including one for radio volume, and also a joystick for map navigation. As with the G1000, the G3000 will have reversionary display capability and will be able to re-initialize on the fly. It will also support Jeppesen chart products, but Garmin’s SafeTaxi, ChartView and synthetic vision features. Garmin expects certification approval in mid-2011.
