Garmin has received Supplemental Type Certificate approval for use of the G5 flight instrument in the heading indicator position for over 600 aircraft types when installed with a Garmin magnetometer. “Furthering our commitment to bring affordable, safety-enhancing and certified solutions to general aviation, the G5 electronic flight instrument that was initially developed for experimental aircraft may now be used to replace a DG or HSI in certificated aircraft and represents another industry-first by Garmin,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin vice president of aviation sales and marketing. With this STC, Garmin G5 solid-state instruments can replace any of the three common gyroscopic instruments found in general aviation aircraft—the turn indicator, attitude indicator (AI) and horizontal situation indicator (DG/HSI). If the G5 is installed as a rate of turn indicator, the original attitude indicator approved in the type design must remain in place, preventing the G5 from replacing all three instruments in a single aircraft. Additionally, although the G5 in AI mode can display airspeed, vertical speed and altitude information when connected to the aircraft’s pitot-static system, the G5 is not approved for use as a primary instrument for any of the pitot-static instruments. The G5 can be used as the primary course deviation indicator in an HSI configuration when paired with an approved GPS or VHF nav radio.
The certified version of the G5 sells for $2,149, which is significantly less than the cost of a new gyroscopic instrument and comparable, in some cases, to the cost to overhaul of a failed gyroscopic instrument. The Garmin G5 3.5-inch LCD fits in a standard 3-1/8 inch instrument cutout and comes with its own ADAHRS and 4-hour backup battery. In dual G5 installations, the G5 can reconfigure in flight from HSI mode to AI mode in the event of a AI failure. A total loss of attitude information would require failure of both ADAHRS modules or failure of aircraft electrical power and both backup batteries. Garmin expects to start shipping the G5 as a DG/HSI kit with the magnetometer starting in May.
