Lincoln, Mass. – July 5, 2011 -– Avidyne Corporation, a leading provider of integrated flight deck and safety systems for general aviation aircraft, announced today that they are expanding the available market for the DFC90 Digital Flight Control System to include Entegra-equipped Piper PA-46 Matrix and Mirage aircraft. Avidyne also announced that they are currently accepting deposits from owners of Entegra–equipped Matrix and Mirage aircraft who are interested in reserving an early slot for the DFC90 at significant savings.
“The attitude-based DFC90 provides considerable performance and safety benefits that make it a very attractive upgrade option for Entegra-equipped Matrix and Mirage aircraft,” said Patrick Herguth, Avidyne’s Chief Operating Officer. “In the short time it has been available, our DFC autopilots are growing beyond 25% penetration in the Cirrus market, and we fully expect the value of the DFC90 to be even more attractive to the owners of these higher-valued, higher-performing Piper aircraft.”
“The DFC90 has proven to be an incredibly successful product for Avidyne, and we are confident that Matrix and Mirage owners will be equally thrilled with the performance and safety improvements this autopilot brings to their airplane,” said Avidyne President and CEO, Dan Schwinn. “Avidyne has always been committed to continuously enhancing safety for all of our customers, and with the DFC90 upgrade, these loyal Entegra owners now have access to the next generation in autopilot technology.”
The DFC90 adds the precision and reliability of an attitude-based flight control system, along with Indicated Airspeed Hold (IAS Hold)— a preferred method for climbing and descending in these higher-performing aircraft. In addition, the DFC90 provides the safety enhancements of the ‘Straight & Level’ mode—providing one-button unusual attitude recovery—and Flight Envelope Protection & Alerting. The DFC90 is currently certified for Cirrus SR20 and SR22, and Avidyne has previously announced plans to interface the DFC90 with the Aspen EFD1000 series integrated flight displays with initial certification expected later this year—opening up the market for DFC90s to an even larger number of aircraft.
Avidyne’s certification activity is nearing completion for both the DFC90 in Entegra-equipped aircraft, and the DFC100 for Entegra Release 9-equipped aircraft. Submittal to the FAA is expected in Q3 2011.
Pricing & Availability
The retail price of the DFC90 Digital Flight Computer for the PA-46 is $14,995*, which also includes the EXP5000 PFD Release 8.0.4 software upgrade.
Avidyne has announced a DFC90 Deposit Program, which is designed to provide significant savings for owners of Entegra–equipped Matrix/Mirage aircraft who want to reserve a slot for their DFC90 between now and the time FAA certification is granted. Contact Reid Antonacchio at (239) 249-0414 for details.*Pricing does not include installation costs or shipping charges. STEC55X unit must be returned to Avidyne. Avidyne also offers Advanced Exchange services for PFD upgrades at a cost of $400.DFC90 Money Back Guarantee
As we previously announced for Cirrus owners, Matrix and Mirage owners can also purchase with confidence as the DFC90 comes with Avidyne’s Money Back Guarantee—If for any reason during the first 30 days you are not satisfied with your DFC90 Autopilot Flight Computer compared with the performance of the S-TEC 55X, Avidyne will refund the price of DFC90 and exchange it for the S-TEC55X.
About the DFC90The DFC90 is an attitude-based digital autopilot system that is designed as a replacement for the S-TEC55X autopilot. The DFC90 has all the standard vertical and lateral modes of operation of a turbine-class autopilot system, including Flight Director (FD), Altitude Hold (ALT), Airspeed Hold (IAS), Vertical Speed Hold (VS), Heading (HDG), Navigation (NAV, APPR, LOC/GS, GPSS), and Control Wheel Steering (CWS).
Customers upgrading from the STEC 55X will notice several major performance and feature improvements including:
*Greatly improved stability due to the use of attitude data to control the autopilot inner control loops. This is particularly evident and important when tracking an ILS to minimums in windy conditions.
*The new Indicated Airspeed Hold (IAS) vertical mode includes a dedicated Airspeed knob and a new airspeed bug on the PFD, and provides a more elegant way to make Flight Level changes.
*The flight director capability of the DFC90 is vastly improved and greatly improves the ability to hand-fly approaches.
*The“Straight & Level” button overrides all autopilot modes and levels the aircraft in both pitch and roll from a wide range of capture attitudes for an added measure of safety.
*“Flight Envelope Protection & Alerting” virtually eliminates autopilot-induced stalls (underspeed) and overspeeds. With Flight Envelope Protection, the autopilot avoids exceeding the flight envelope while providing visual and aural warnings to the pilot.
There several other improvements, such as a dedicated Vertical Speed knob, pitch hold mode, wide autopilot engagement, a dedicated GPSS button, automatic Back Course Approach selection, multiple color annunciations to indicate armed and active states, intercept mode annunciations, and Avidyne’s hallmark ease of use.
About Avidyne Corporation. Avidyne’s continuing leadership in innovation and its Flying Made Simple™ system design make flying safer, more accessible and more enjoyable for pilots and their passengers. The company’s expanding line of products include the industry-leading Entegra integrated flight deck line for new and existing aircraft, datalink-capable EX5000 and EX500 multi-function displays and the dual-antenna TAS600 series of active traffic advisory systems, the MLB700 broadcast datalink receiver, the MLX770 world-wide datalink transceiver, and the TWX670 Tactical Weather Detection system. Headquartered in Lincoln, MA, the company has facilities in Westerville, OH, Melbourne, FL, and Boulder, CO. www.avidyne.com
