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From: "Mike Wills" <rv-4mike@cox.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
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Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: Glass Cockpit
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:24:01 -0700
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Charlie,

Will GRT customize the engine monitor to accommodate the requirements of a 
rotary (and yes, I realize you fly a Lyc)? Many years ago when I was 
shopping for a monitor the answer I got was no so I passed on GRT. But that 
may have changed.

Mike Wills

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Charlie England" <ceengland@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 6:59 PM
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Glass Cockpit

> VFR or IFR? For pure VFR, almost anything would be fine.
>
> My primary reason for an SNF trip this year was to get face to face time 
> with the EFIS companies in an attempt to understand what each will/won't 
> do. Turns out there are significant differences among even the major 
> players. For instance, the Trutrak EFIS can't directly control their own 
> Trutrak autopilot heads; you must hook the servos directly to the EFIS 
> (loss of redundancy). The Dynon with servos has the same loss of 
> redundancy issue. IIRC, at one point, the Dynon required GPS (external) 
> data to keep the EFIS oriented, but I've heard that they have since fixed 
> that.
>
> I didn't look at the Advanced Flight Systems stuff; too expensive for me, 
> & I didn't see the MGL (South Africa) guys.
>
> I was pleasantly surprised at the Grand Rapids Sport. It will listen to 
> any GPS, it can do an angle of attack calculation without extra air 
> sensors, it can drive a Trutrak autopilot head (redundancy; if the EFIS 
> dies the Trutrak can still fly the plane), even the cheapest model with no 
> synthetic vision still has a flight director and 'highway in the sky' 
> boxes to guide you to a runway, a database of all FAA data (waypoints, 
> obstructions, terrain, frequencies, etc) is available through GRT. Free. 
> Forever. (Keeping a Garmin 430 current can cost as much as $1600 a year, 
> over half the cost of the GRT Sport.)  The one thing I didn't like was 
> that when you ask it to show you freqs for a new area/destination, the 
> full screen goes black & the info is presented in white. I pointed out 
> that losing flight data while tuning the radio was not a good idea & that 
> they could instead put the freq data where the engine data normally 
> resides, the rep (one of the engineering types at GRT) immediately started 
> taking notes He was accustomed to having 2 screens & they hadn't thought 
> about low budget fliers like me. He gave me the impression that there 
> would soon be some software revisions available to GRT EFIS owners.
>
> I'm sure the game will change again within a week or two, but for now it 
> looks like the GRT would give me the most bang for my buck. A touch over 
> $4,200 US will get 1 screen, an engine monitor/display which can display 
> its data on the EFIS screen, and all the engine probes with fuel flow for 
> a 4cyl engine. The EFIS alone is about $3,000.
>
> I'm sure there are issues that I didn't think to even ask about (I'm not 
> yet instrument rated), so don't accept this as a complete evaluation.
>
> Charlie
>
>
> On 4/25/2010 6:23 PM, Tracy Crook wrote:
>> Dynon and Grand Rapids Technologies both have good reputations.  Wish I'd 
>> bought either one of those instead of Bluemountain   :-(
>>
>> Tracy
>>
>> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 7:16 PM, George Lendich <lendich@aanet.com.au 
>> <mailto:lendich@aanet.com.au>> wrote:
>>
>>     Chaps,
>>     I'm enquiring for a buddy, who is considering glass cockpit (
>>     GC)displays and is interested in the Dynon product for his light
>>     Sport Jabiru.
>>     Any feed back welcome on any of the GC products, their reliability
>>     and value for money.
>>     George ( down under)
>>
>>
>
>
> --
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