COPA Migration M8 - Dayton, Ohio. – June 18, 2010 -– Avidyne Corporation, a leading provider of integrated flight deck and safety systems for general aviation aircraft, announced today they have received Technical Standard Order (TSO) certification of the DFC90 Digital Flight Control System. The DFC90 is an autopilot upgrade for existing Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft that have Avidyne’s Entegra Integrated Flight Deck System. The DFC90 adds the precision and reliability of an attitude-based flight control system, as well as safety enhancements such as a Straight & Level mode that provides one-button unusual attitude recovery.
Avidyne also received TSO approval for Release 8.0, which is the Primary Flight Display (PFD) software upgrade needed to make the Entegra EXP5000 PFD compatible with the DFC90.
“The significant performance and safety benefits of the attitude-based DFC90 make it a very attractive upgrade for the more than 4,000 owners of Entegra-equipped Cirrus aircraft,” said Patrick Herguth, Avidyne’s Chief Executive Officer.
“The certification of the DFC90 is a significant achievement for Avidyne, as we have expanded our product line to become a full-line avionics manufacturer,” said Avidyne president Dan Schwinn. “Avidyne is committed to continuously enhancing safety for all of our customers, and the DFC90 provides owners of Entegra-equipped Cirrus aircraft with next-generation attitude-based autopilot capability.”
About the DFC90
The DFC90 is an attitude-based digital autopilot system that is designed as a slide-in replacement for the S-TEC55X autopilot in existing Entegra-equipped Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft.
The Release 8.0 software and Mod 55 PFD hardware upgrades enable the DFC90 autopilot to take advantage of the precision attitude information of Entegra’s integrated Air Data and Attitude Heading Reference System (ADAHRS), without the need for costly wiring changes to the aircraft.
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), and Navigation (NAV, APPR, LOC/GS, GPSS). Customers upgrading from the STEC 55X will notice several major performance and feature improvements including:
1. 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.
2. 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.
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 for an added measure of safety.
4. The flight director capability of the DFC90 is vastly improved and greatly improves the ability to hand-fly approaches.
There are many other improvements, such as a dedicated Vertical Speed knob, pitch hold mode, wide autopilot engagement, additional annunciations in PFD 8.0, 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.
