Avionics

The already-warm competition in the low-cost glass panel market got hotter yet on Monday when Garmin announced at AEA in Palm Springs that the G3X Touch system will now be available for certified aircraft. The G3X Touch is a mainstay in the experimental segment and will now be installable under an approved model list for […]

While the shortage of pilots gets most of the breathless press these days, avionics shops can tell you it’s no picnic finding technicians to install increasingly complex avionics. And with the avionics sector booming, newly installed Aircraft Electronics Association President Mike Adamson says it will take intense pressure on training just to keep up, much […]

The FAA issued Airworthiness Directive 2019-01-02 back in February 2019 to address a safety-of-flight-issue with many Aspen Avionics Evolution flight displays, and the company this week announced a fix with a new software modification. The AD affected Aspen Evolution Flight Displays (EFD1000/500) loaded with software version 2.9 because of the potential for uncommanded inflight resetting […]

Boeing 737 MAX Grounding I strongly suspect that many (if not a majority) of airlines do not include enough aircraft handling simulator training on their conversion courses, especially on difference courses. For example, converting from the B737-800 to the 737 MAX should include simulator training specifically aimed at how to deal with a malfunctioning MCAS, […]

Boeing Buys ForeFlight Beyond disappointing. Foreflight is going to get caught up in a corporate structure that will bleed all the imagination and energy out of this very important company. I certainly can’t judge the owners for “cashing” out but rest assured Boeing will raise prices and will not add “value”. What value, what strength […]

Boeing announced on Wednesday that it has acquired aviation app company ForeFlight. ForeFlight has been working in partnership with Jeppesen—also owned by Boeing—for the last two years to offer Jeppesen’s aeronautical data and charts on ForeFlight mobile platforms. Although the exact terms of the deal have not been disclosed, Boeing says the ForeFlight and Jepessen […]

The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) annual market report contains good news for avionics manufacturers and shops. Compared to 2017, last year’s total sales topped $2.7 billion, a gain of 17.3 percent. This uptick follows a modest 2.9 percent rise from 2016 to 2017, that in turn followed two years of single-digit decline. Of the total, […]

The FAA has partnered with drone operations software company Kittyhawk to redesign the agency’s B4UFLY mobile app for recreational unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drone) operators. According to the FAA, the new version, which is scheduled to launch in April 2019, will be aimed at improving user experience. Until the new app is released, the FAA says […]

Earlier this week, Garmin sent out a press release reminding us that during this week 25 years ago, it rolled out the first approach-approved GPS navigator, the GPS 155 TSO. In commemoration of that seminal event, Garmin is giving away free ADS-B installations until the end of the month. That previous sentence is an utter […]

We take it for granted today, but 25 years ago a GPS navigator approved for non-precision instrument approaches was big thing—and Garmin’s GPS 155 TSO was the first to be approved under TSO-C129 A1. There’s reason for Garmin to look back on Feb. 16, 1994, with some pride. After decades of abundantly analog navigation solutions […]