New EFIS G4

[Snap]

Ok, finally starting to have a look at stuff again. Have a look at this. New gadgets!!! Oh Dear.

http://www.bluemountainavionics.com/gen4.php

[cjensen]

hold your horses on that one!!! i have a friend with the 3rd generation BM sport, and it locks up on him ALL THE TIME! he has told the company he wants his money back, and they will give it to him, but they asked him to try out the G4 for free, and send the G3 back. if he likes it, he can keep it, but if it doesn't perform...he is not happy.

should be shipped to him mid march. i'll get a flying report as soon as i can from him.

[Snap]

That would be great. Would love to here a report on it. I wonder what is making the G3 lock up? Now if you had the auto pilot as well, would you be worried?

[cjensen]

i would be! that G3 is not performing the way it's supposed to at all...and this is his second one! first one did the same thing. he sent it in for a new one, and nothing changed.

[jim_geo]

Probably uses an Intel 486 for it's brains.

[Dan A]

Snap,
Check out Grand Rapids Technologies EFIS systems. I like mine.
Dan

[captain_john]

The Grand Rapids stuff is really VERY impressive!

I am none too thrilled with Blue Mountain. I have heard too many "stories" whether they are true or not...

CJ

[mustang]

I was chatting with Stein of Steinair the other day and we got talking about EFIS's. I have been leaning towards the GRT which is pretty much bullet proof, but I noticed the new AFS EFIS units which surfaced at Sun'nFun. Stein told me he has been beta testing these units and they have been very good and knock the socks off all of the present day EFIS units for screen brightness and readability. (As does the engine monitor) He mentioned that he had encouraged Rob Hickman to focus on getting the EFIS itself to be a solid instrument before adding any bells and whistles like Blue Mountain units which have turned out to be so flaky for quite a few guys.

Anyway, I will be watching these AFS units carefully, and since we are planning to use their engine monitor, it would dovetail nicely to have the EFIS display also. The Displays can be switched back and forth

A word of caution here for would be IFR pilots building RV's. Be conservative in your choice of EFIS diplays and moving map units. Avoid all Windows run units. We all know how flaky Windows is, why would you have Windows running your diplays? I was flying behind a Garmin I360 on a PDA last summer and it had to be rebooted two or three times per flight. The last thing you want to be saying to ATC is" Can N2233RV go around the holding pattern once more while we reboot?!"

I can tell you from first hand experience that the RV is NOT a good IFR Platform. Flying VFR in glass smooth air at 11,500 last summer to Wisconsin in an RV-4 led me to order our Trio autopilot for the RV-8. While simply ducking down to retrieve a pen or a map from the floor, I would find the airplane in a 20 degree bank and climbing or descending. Nine hours of herding the "4" to Milwaukee convinced me that an autopilot is essential for cross country work in an RV. You can't have a SPORT type airplane with stability closer to neutral than other General Aviation aircraft and still expect goods hands-off flight characteristics.

The other thing I will say to newbies in aviation getting into an RV, is to be cautious about aquiring the latest cutting edge stuff, especially when it runs off a tablet type computer. Yes, it looks really cool, but having operated EFIS/Nav Displays in the big iron, (costing a baziliion dollars)even they can get weird on occaision. All this stuff is run on software, and software can be corrupted, incorrect to start with, or have anomalies that don't show up until in the air and down the road. I can remember that the 767 had anomalies that were published in bulletins, warning pilots to be aware of them. So when the big dollar stuff has these faults how about the little start-up guy's stuff?? Don't you think they might have more anomalies than the Larger company's stuff? (Honeywell)

All that said, it is a good thing to wait as long as possible before purchasing your Electronics so that you do get the latest, and best technology. (And then, don't keep looking!)

Cheers, Pete

[mustang]

I was chatting with Stein of Steinair the other day and we got talking about EFIS's. I have been leaning towards the GRT which is pretty much bullet proof, but I noticed the new AFS EFIS units which surfaced at Sun'nFun. Stein told me he has been beta testing these units and they have been very good and knock the socks off all of the present day EFIS units for screen brightness and readability. (As does the engine monitor) He mentioned that he had encouraged Rob Hickman to focus on getting the EFIS itself to be a solid instrument before adding any bells and whistles like Blue Mountain units which have turned out to be so flaky for quite a few guys.

Anyway, I will be watching these AFS units carefully, and since we are planning to use their engine monitor, it would dovetail nicely to have the EFIS display also. The Displays can be switched back and forth

A word of caution here for would be IFR pilots building RV's. Be conservative in your choice of EFIS diplays and moving map units. Avoid all Windows run units. We all know how flaky Windows is, why would you have Windows running your diplays? I was flying behind a Garmin I360 on a PDA last summer and it had to be rebooted two or three times per flight. The last thing you want to be saying to ATC is" Can N2233RV go around the holding pattern once more while we reboot?!"

I can tell you from first hand experience that the RV is NOT a good IFR Platform. Flying VFR in glass smooth air at 11,500 last summer to Wisconsin in an RV-4 led me to order our Trio autopilot for the RV-8. While simply ducking down to retrieve a pen or a map from the floor, I would find the airplane in a 20 degree bank and climbing or descending. Nine hours of herding the "4" to Milwaukee convinced me that an autopilot is essential for cross country work in an RV. You can't have a SPORT type airplane with stability closer to neutral than other General Aviation aircraft and still expect goods hands-off flight characteristics.

The other thing I will say to newbies in aviation getting into an RV, is to be cautious about aquiring the latest cutting edge stuff, especially when it runs off a tablet type computer. Yes, it looks really cool, but having operated EFIS/Nav Displays in the big iron, (costing a baziliion dollars)even they can get weird on occaision. All this stuff is run on software, and software can be corrupted, incorrect to start with, or have anomalies that don't show up until in the air and down the road. I can remember that the 767 had anomalies that were published in bulletins, warning pilots to be aware of them. So when the big dollar stuff has these faults how about the little start-up guy's stuff?? Don't you think they might have more anomalies than the Larger company's stuff? (Honeywell)

All that said, it is a good thing to wait as long as possible before purchasing your Electronics so that you do get the latest, and best technology. (And then, don't keep looking!)

Cheers, Pete

[mustang]

I was chatting with Stein of Steinair the other day and we got talking about EFIS's. I have been leaning towards the GRT which is pretty much bullet proof, but I noticed the new AFS EFIS units which surfaced at Sun'nFun. Stein told me he has been beta testing these units and they have been very good and knock the socks off all of the present day EFIS units for screen brightness and readability. (As does the engine monitor) He mentioned that he had encouraged Rob Hickman to focus on getting the EFIS itself to be a solid instrument before adding any bells and whistles like Blue Mountain units which have turned out to be so flaky for quite a few guys.

Anyway, I will be watching these AFS units carefully, and since we are planning to use their engine monitor, it would dovetail nicely to have the EFIS display also. The Displays can be switched back and forth

A word of caution here for would be IFR pilots building RV's. Be conservative in your choice of EFIS diplays and moving map units. Avoid all Windows run units. We all know how flaky Windows is, why would you have Windows running your diplays? I was flying behind a Garmin I360 on a PDA last summer and it had to be rebooted two or three times per flight. The last thing you want to be saying to ATC is" Can N2233RV go around the holding pattern once more while we reboot?!"

I can tell you from first hand experience that the RV is NOT a good IFR Platform. Flying VFR in glass smooth air at 11,500 last summer to Wisconsin in an RV-4 led me to order our Trio autopilot for the RV-8. While simply ducking down to retrieve a pen or a map from the floor, I would find the airplane in a 20 degree bank and climbing or descending. Nine hours of herding the "4" to Milwaukee convinced me that an autopilot is essential for cross country work in an RV. You can't have a SPORT type airplane with stability closer to neutral than other General Aviation aircraft and still expect goods hands-off flight characteristics.

The other thing I will say to newbies in aviation getting into an RV, is to be cautious about aquiring the latest cutting edge stuff, especially when it runs off a tablet type computer. Yes, it looks really cool, but having operated EFIS/Nav Displays in the big iron, (costing a baziliion dollars)even they can get weird on occaision. All this stuff is run on software, and software can be corrupted, incorrect to start with, or have anomalies that don't show up until in the air and down the road. I can remember that the 767 had anomalies that were published in bulletins, warning pilots to be aware of them. So when the big dollar stuff has these faults how about the little start-up guy's stuff?? Don't you think they might have more anomalies than the Larger company's stuff? (Honeywell)

All that said, it is a good thing to wait as long as possible before purchasing your Electronics so that you do get the latest, and best technology. (And then, don't keep looking!)

Cheers, Pete