AUTOPILOTS, Garmin, STEC, King, etc.

[Pinecone]

6 hours ago, McMooney said:

I've noticed ever since getting the g5's something about having the numbers  seems to cause me to fly more exact.   It's not actually reading of the numbers, my brain seems to just better respond to the movement of the display rather than the analog instruments.  I'm a computer guy so that probably has something to do with it.

I see the same thing in cruise.  10 feet off altitude needs to be fixed.

But you have to look at the number and interpret it, with the needle should be pointed up or down in cruise.

[Pinecone]

1 hour ago, GeeBee said:

Every system has its strengths and weaknesses. I was recently flying with an instructor at a MPPP under the hood when he pulled my AHRS C/B. So I looked over at my standby and flew the airplane for a minute. Then I reached over and engaged my S-Tec 55x in heading and alt hold mode. Try that with your GFC

With regard to that " little blue button" everyone raves about. If you find yourself in an unusual attitude due to AI failure such as gyro or AHRS failure (which is the most common mode in IMC), unless you have a switchable attitude source that little blue button is worthless.

Basic attitude instrument flying skills. Accept no substitute. 

 

Don't you have a back up instrument with AHARS?   

[GeeBee]

3 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Don't you have a back up instrument with AHARS?   

I think you missed what I wrote. I said," I looked over at the standby and flew the airplane." It is a GI-275 to be exact. The point of my post is this. The GFC systems are all attitude based. If you lose your primary attitude indicator, the GFC quits working. Unless you have a back up instrument or backup AHARS wired to the autopilot with a selector switch to select the backup, the GFC will not work or will follow bad data. Not even the blue button will work.

The S-Tec is a rate based A/P. It does not use attitude. It does use an electric turn and bank cleverly hidden behind the MFD on a G1000 and barometric pressure sensing for pitch. Thus a failure of the attitude system, be it an attitude gyro or AHARS system does of affect the S-Tec operation. You could in fact lose both the primary attitude system and the back up attitude indicator and still fly the airplane on the autopilot with an S-Tec.

[Pinecone]

My planned panel will have G3X primary with G-5 backup.  As I understand it, if the G3X fails, the autopilot stops flying until you push a button, but it then uses the G-5 without any manual switch.

[GeeBee]

That is called "auto-switching" which is the same thing. It seeks a valid attitude reference.

[hubcap]

58 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

My planned panel will have G3X primary with G-5 backup.  As I understand it, if the G3X fails, the autopilot stops flying until you push a button, but it then uses the G-5 without any manual switch.

You may want to check on that.

I don't believe a G3x can drive the GFC500, if I understood your comment correctly.

[RoundTwo]

7 minutes ago, hubcap said:

You may want to check on that.

I don't believe a G3x can drive the GFC500, if I understood your comment correctly.

GFC500 needs a G5 or GI275.

[ArtVandelay]

G3X can drive the GFC500.

[RoundTwo]

1 minute ago, ArtVandelay said:

G3X can drive the GFC500.

In certificated, or experimental? 

[ArtVandelay]

In certificated, or experimental? 

Either I think, from the certified text:
Additionally, G3X Touch can now serve as an attitude source for the GFC 500 autopilot, which does not require the G5 electronic flight instrument when installed with G3X Touch.

[RoundTwo]

3 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Either I think, from the certified text:
Additionally, G3X Touch can now serve as an attitude source for the GFC 500 autopilot, which does not require the G5 electronic flight instrument when installed with G3X Touch.

Thanks for that. I stand corrected.

[Pinecone]

Also thanks.

So with a G3X and a G-5 (or GI-275), you have redundant sources of attitude.