Brent Regan tells us that an EFIS must be eveluated in the air.  I agree 100%.

In my day job, we are developing a two-seat sport jet.  (And yes, we told
people at Oshkosh that "the prototype will be flying in 18 months and you can
have yours in 36 months".  What we did not say is that holding to that
schedule requires zero delay for funding to arrive.  Since megabucks did not
appear the day we returned to our offices, there will be a subsequent
delay.... Does that qualify us for the Prevarication Award?  I dunno.)

Anyway, one of the things we are doing is evaluating the crop of EFIS out
there.  Two years ago we decided on the Rockwell Collins ProLine 21 system
found in many regional jets and little airliners, but many new competitors
have evolved since then, including Sierra/Chelton.  (I need to point out that
we are limited to certified systems.)

If you look at the displays, you will decide for yourself which look good and
which don't.  You may even see a correlation with price.  However, far more
important is the ability to use the thing to reduce your workload in the sky.
 If you have to go heads-down for 30 seconds every time the approach
controller gives you a new vector, the system is not only useless, it's
dangerous.  I'm not saying which one was that bad, but I am agreeing with
Brent that the "evaluate it in flight" approach should be considered
essential.

Changing the subject slightly, I thought the Dynon EFIS (the little $2000
gizmo) was absolutely outstanding, and even this cheapskate 360 builder is
seriously considering buying one.  However, two things I didn't like:

1)  The scale of the turn needle changes when the turn rate gets high, and if
you're not looking at it when it happens, you might not notice and think you
need to bank even more.  A major annoyance, but not likely a fatal flaw.

2)  It takes forever and a day to change the heading bug setting.  I thought
that this was a pilot fatality waiting to happen.

I could not for the life of me convince the pretty and personable lady at the
booth that the heading bug selection was unacceptable.  It was clear that she
had never flown approach vectors with a heading bug in her life.  But since
she was so pretty and personable, this male-chauvinist-pig did not discuss
the issue with her colleague at the booth.  However, in Dynon's defense, the
admitted they had some more work to do before they released them to
customers.  Hopefully they'll wake up and smell the coffee, because the unit
is really nice in all other respects.

- Rob Wolf