AEA Convention – Reno, NV – March 23, 2011 – Avidyne Corporation, a leading provider of integrated flight deck and safety systems for general aviation aircraft, announced today that they are working with Aspen Avionics of Albuquerque to develop an interface between the Aspen Evolution displays and the Avidyne DFC90 Digital Autopilot.
“The combination of Aspen’s integrated Air Data and Attitude Heading Reference System (ADAHRS) and Avidyne’s innovative safety features is a powerful offering for those seeking an affordable, all-digital solution,” says Aspen President and CEO John Uczekaj. He adds, “Aspen’s collaboration with Avidyne delivers upon our philosophy of openness and interoperability, enabling new options for owners to update their aircraft with advanced, best-of-breed avionics capabilities.”
“With their versatile Evolution display systems, Aspen can retrofit into a wide variety of aircraft with varied avionics configurations and we are pleased to be working with them on the interface with our DFC90,” said Patrick Herguth, Avidyne’s Chief Operating Officer. “The DFC90 is the leading retrofit autopilot solution today for high-performance aircraft. The combination of the DFC90’s innovative safety features like Flight Envelope Protection and Straight & Level button with the Aspen displays creates the opportunity to expand the retrofit market.”
Aspen Evolution Displays are already compatible with Avidyne’s industry-leading TAS600 Traffic Advisory Systems. The DFC90 is currently certified with Avidyne’s Entegra Integrated Flight Deck displays in Cirrus aircraft. Avidyne and Aspen will be gauging customer interest in future programs and airframes.
Pricing and Availability
Certification of the DFC90 and Evolution display interface will be completed later this year. Pricing for the DFC90 autopilot starts at $9,995, and Aspen pricing will be forthcoming.
About the DFC90
The DFC90 is Avidyne’s new all-digital attitude-based flight control system. It provides all the standard vertical and lateral modes of operation typically found in a turbine-class autopilot system, including Flight Director (FD), Altitude Hold (ALT), Airspeed Hold (IAS), Vertical Speed Hold (VS), Heading (HDG), and Navigation (NAV, APPR, LOC/GS, GPSS).
The DFC90, initially certified as a slide-in replacement for the STEC55X in Entegra-eqiupped Cirrus aircraft, delivers significant performance and safety improvements including:
1. Greatly improved stability due to the use of the digital attitude data derived from the ADAHRS sensor to control the autopilot inner control loops. This is particularly evident and important when tracking an ILS to minimums in windy conditions.
2. 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.
3. The “Straight & Level” button overrides all autopilot modes and levels the aircraft in both pitch and roll from a wide range of capture attitudes, providing one-touch unusual attitude recovery, for an added measure of safety.
4. Flight Envelope Protection and Alerting guards against autopilot-induced stalls (underspeed) and overspeeds, which is triggered when the DFC90 recognizes an underspeed, overspeed, or excessive bank condition and alerts the pilot via aural and text alerts.
About Aspen Avionics, Inc. (www.aspenavionics.com)Aspen Avionics specializes in bringing the most advanced technology and capability from the commercial and business aviation markets into general aviation and helicopter cockpits — and budgets. Our products increase situational awareness and reduce pilot workload, making it easier and safer to fly in both VFR and IFR conditions. The way we look at it, getting the latest avionics technology shouldn’t always mean spending a lot of money — on equipment or installation. At Aspen Avionics, we design products to be affordable, easy to install, and easy to own.
About Avidyne Corporation (www.avidyne.com)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, DFC90 and DFC100 digital flight control systems, datalink-capable EX600 multi-function displays, 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 Columbus, OH, Melbourne, FL, and Boulder, CO.
