Can I turn on FD without an AP

[Vilvens24]

I have a G500txi and a 750. 
 But no a/p.

Is there a way to turn on the flight director without dropping $15k on a a/p?

 

In my opinion just the f/d is enough to decrease single pilot work load when IMC.
 I can do it on the big planes at work but can’t seem to figure it out on the small ones at home.

 

Thanks

 

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Vilvens24

[dzeleski]

11 minutes ago, Vilvens24 said:

I have a G500txi and a 750. 
 But no a/p.

Is there a way to turn on the flight director without dropping $15k on a a/p?

 

In my opinion just the f/d is enough to decrease single pilot work load when IMC.
 I can do it on the big planes at work but can’t seem to figure it out on the small ones at home.

 

Thanks

 

 

"Pilot controls for flight director functions are not available on the GDU. They are available only on the autopilot/flight director controller."

 

http://static.garmin.com/pumac/190-01717-10_h.pdf
Section 3.6 Page 3-22

 

It seems the AP controller drives that functionality.

[PT20J]

A flight director is part of an autopilot system. The flight director provides a visual depiction of the computed pitch and roll commands that are sent to the servos by the autopilot. So, I think what you asking is if you could just install the autopilot without hooking up the servos and only use the flight director. I don't think there is an autopilot out there that would work this way. It might theoretically be possible with a G3X if Garmin supplied the appropriate software (which they don't) because the G3X has the GFC 500 logic embedded. But the G500 TXi does not have that.

Skip

[StevenL757]

5 hours ago, Vilvens24 said:

I have a G500txi and a 750. 
 But no a/p.

Is there a way to turn on the flight director without dropping $15k on a a/p?

In my opinion just the f/d is enough to decrease single pilot work load when IMC.
 I can do it on the big planes at work but can’t seem to figure it out on the small ones at home.

Thanks

According to Garmin, any of their autopilots are required to display an FD queue on any ADI.

[81X]

5 hours ago, PT20J said:

A flight director is part of an autopilot system. The flight director provides a visual depiction of the computed pitch and roll commands that are sent to the servos by the autopilot. So, I think what you asking is if you could just install the autopilot without hooking up the servos and only use the flight director. I don't think there is an autopilot out there that would work this way. It might theoretically be possible with a G3X if Garmin supplied the appropriate software (which they don't) because the G3X has the GFC 500 logic embedded. But the G500 TXi does not have that.

Skip

Right. The flight director is calculating what you should be doing attitude-wise based on whether you’re following or intercepting a nav signal, a bugged heading, a vertical speed, a glide slope, straight and level, or any combination thereof.  Without being able to provide these inputs and without something to compute what the airplane should do as a result, no flight director.  
 

To Skip’s point, Garmin’s AP brains are in the units like the G5’s and G3X’s. That autopilot control panel is just that, a control panel with no AP logic.  It’s technically possible to have those working together to get you the FD with no Servos, but who knows how that would work with the STC.  
 

Really interesting use case!  

[201Steve]

I know on the G5 + gfc500 setup, there is no way to turn on the FD directly from the g5. It has to be activated from the AP head.  But, it does allow you to run the FD with autopilot off. 

[RobertGary1]

14 hours ago, 201Steve said:

I know on the G5 + gfc500 setup, there is no way to turn on the FD directly from the g5. It has to be activated from the AP head.  But, it does allow you to run the FD with autopilot off. 

It wouldn’t be a very usable fd if it only worked when the autopilot was on.