G5 Version 8.0 w/ Smart Glide support

[carusoam]

It must really be helpful to have an EE degree in aviation today!   
 

Probably didn’t see that coming…
 

Best regards,

-a-

[rbp]

42 minutes ago, donkaye said:

airspeed converted to altitude would increase the range.

Yes. This is important. We do it in glider flying too when entering a thermal. 

[PT20J]

55 minutes ago, carusoam said:

It must really be helpful to have an EE degree in aviation today!   
 

Probably didn’t see that coming…
 

Best regards,

-a-

Well, it certainly helps to figure out how to test this stuff. The Garmin documentation isn't the best in the world. And, there is a lot of it. I added up all the documentation for my G3X / G5 / GTN / GNC / GTX / GFC 500 panel and it works out to:

Pilot's Guides -- 1241 pages

AFMS -- 174 pages

Maintenance Manuals -- 580 pages

Installation Manuals -- 1744 pages

Hard to absorb all that stuff. No wonder few people really understand it (and I am not claiming that I have it all figured out).

The February AOPA Pilot magazine arrived today. Tom Haines has a column wherein he talks about his new G3X panel in his Bonanza and how he took training from a Bonanza instructor to learn it. From his description there are still a lot of things he doesn't understand. The instructor probably doesn't understand it either.

And, the stuff doesn't always work as described in the manuals. The installation is supposed to have the GSU 25D ADAHRS and the GMU 11 magnetometer on the same circuit breaker. Garmin could not explain why I should have to fail the ADAHRS if the GMU dies and vice versa so I had them installed on separate breakers. I've been testing the system for failure modes when pulling individual breakers and I found that the behavior of the G3X is not as described in the AFMS when the GMU fails. Garmin support has been trying to get an answer from engineering for a month. Probably a software oops somewhere.

I like the Garmin panel. But having designed a lot of hardware and software and having managed teams that did so, I know that the internal known bug list is probably pretty extensive. The unknown bug list is perhaps even longer. So, I'm not surprised that things don't always work as expected and I test everything I can think of to avoid surprises later in the air.

Skip

[donkaye]

Without owning an airplane it would be very difficult to learn all the ins and outs of a complete Garmin system.  I think many instructors "sort of learn" on the fly while teaching.  That's not very satisfactory for a student.

I feel fortunate to have my own airplane to fully check out all operations of all my avionics.  For the past 10 years I've been on the forefront of all the new stuff Garmin has come out with.  Unlike almost everyone except for the engineers among us, I have read all the manuals multiple times of all the equipment I have, and then put that knowledge into practice.  Sometimes I've got to come back and re-read some information after flying with a product.  For example, I got a little more clarity on the Smart Glide after flying with it and coming home today and re-reading the material.  But Garmin logic is similar across their aviation product line, so I can get up to speed on most of the products I don't have very quickly (the GI275 as an example).   Having used the equipment, it's actually a lot of fun teaching people how to use it. 

[OR75]

I am not an early adopter, and I sm in no rush , I will wait to see that v9.0 works as advertised 

in devices built today like the iphones , you cannot downgrade to a previous version … 

[donkaye]

1 hour ago, OR75 said:

I am not an early adopter, and I sm in no rush , I will wait to see that v9.0 works as advertised 

in devices built today like the iphones , you cannot downgrade to a previous version … 

With Garmin, they have been pretty responsive.  When I found at least 10 bugs in the 796 when it first came out, within one month they had a new software update fixing all of them, and then surprised me with a free 1 year database subscription.  I am still waiting for a bug fix on an issue with the 500TXi that they confirmed.

[LANCECASPER]

A lot of you have probably already seen this video

 

 

[rbp]

Pro Tip: turn on closed captioning and set the playback speed to 1.5 or higher

[rbp]

1. is Vmaxglide calculated based on weight? it should know the fuel on board, but it would be useful to be able to enter #pax and #bags

2. it would be nice to be able to see a path to the next waypoint that always remains within gliding distance of an appropriate airport

3. it would be nice to see how much higher I would have to climb in order stay within glide range of airports to the next waypoint

 

[hais]

7 hours ago, rbp said:

1. is Vmaxglide calculated based on weight? it should know the fuel on board, but it would be useful to be able to enter #pax and #bags

2. it would be nice to be able to see a path to the next waypoint that always remains within gliding distance of an appropriate airport

3. it would be nice to see how much higher I would have to climb in order stay within glide range of airports to the next waypoint

 

Docs say you need to set to max gross glide speed. Would be nice to have it calculate based on fuel remaining.

[carusoam]

It would be nice to activate the fuel dump valve as well… 

1) Improves glide distance…

2) Slows the stall speed…

3) Lessens the chance of the post landing fire…

4) Covers your tracks if you accidentally ran out of fuel…

 

PP thoughts only…

-a-

[aviatoreb]

Does smart glide do anything if I don’t have a gfc500?

 

[PT20J]

Don't overthink this  The best glide angle is the same independent of weight although the airspeed isn't. But the drag curve is fairly flat (lift is constant = weight) for airspeeds near L/Dmax so a few knows either way doesn't make a lot of difference.

The G3X (and ForeFlight) will display a glide range ring so you can tell what airports are within gliding distance (and adjust your altitude accordingly) before ever engaging smart glide.

Skip

[carusoam]

For some reason Erik has that empty feeling in his stomach regarding engine out Mooney gliding… it shows in his writing…

Glide rings are pretty nice…

Flying in the FLs is pretty good too…

 

The O has a best glide speed range from about 80 to 90kias… depending on gross weight… similar to Vy…

Knowing which way the wind is blowing is probably most helpful… for adjusting the rings…

PP thinking out loud only…

Best regards,

-a-

[PT20J]

I worry a lot more about my foibles than Lycoming's.

[201Steve]

I just had my 650xi software updated today. We were more focused on another issue so the software update was sort of secondary. 
 

Does anybody know- Is there anything else that needs to be done to configure usage for smart glide? I was busy on the flight home dodging weather to give it any investigation. 
 

dual g5’s

gtn650xi

gfc500

[201Mooniac]

Smart Glide requires configuration on the GTN.  I don't recall if there is any configuration on the G5.