While light aircraft makers Cirrus and Columbia can be credited with launching the glass cockpit revolution for piston singles, Cessna took its time dropping steam gauges. As of this week, with the announcement that the turboprop Caravan will now have the G1000, everything in the Cessna line now features state-of-the-art EFIS. The G1000, along with Garmin digital GFC 700 flight control system, will be standard equipment in all three variants of the Caravan, the 675, the Grand Caravan and Super Cargomaster.
The Caravan version of the G1000 will feature engine instrumentation and monitoring for the Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprop, terrain, traffic, weather and crew alerting. It will also be Class Gama 3 WAAS compliant and thus capable of the LPV approaches that are becoming more numerous by the month. G1000-equipped Caravans will be available during the first half of 2008, according to Garmin and Cessna.
