What is Synthetic Vision For?

[MountainGoat]

I have Aspen MFD/PFD with synthetic vision.  Aside from looking kind of neat, I don't really understand what it is for.  I'm certainly not going to go on low level penetration raids with it.  If I'm flying an instrument approach, I'm looking at glideslope/localizer and looking outside for lights, not synthetic vision.  I often have it up because I have it and it is less boring than a blank background, but I'm having trouble seeing a real use for it.

What am I missing?

[N201MKTurbo]

It is kind of comforting while flying at night in the mountains.

[Marc_B]

I think it's great for terrain and obstruction awareness in general, but definitely at night and in IMC. The SVT in my Garmin G500 TXi also has traffic overlay that helps in rough estimation of location of potential traffic.  But one of the best things is the flight path vector that shows you where your aircraft is heading.

I find SVT very useful.

[Utah20Gflyer]

6 hours ago, Marc_B said:

I think it's great for terrain and obstruction awareness in general, but definitely at night and in IFR.  The SVT in my Garmin G500 TXi also has traffic overlay that helps in rough estimation of location of potential traffic.  But one of the best things is the flight path vector that shows you where your aircraft is heading.

I find SVT very useful.

I’d agree the flight path vector is nice on the Garmin stuff.   During instrument approaches if the circle is on the runway you have your decent and wind correction dialed in.   Also useful for additional terrain awareness.  

[RoundTwo]

It’s great for promoting lazy scanning when hand flying an approach. As long as you’ve got the runway graphic shown, who needs to watch needles? 

[Schllc]

It’s very helpful in imc on approaches and is something if you’ve never had you tend to discount, and even once you get it you don’t really catalog all the differences. Then you fly something without it and the real appreciation is evident. 
I would not say it’s a “have to have”, but it definitely a nice thing to have. 

[philiplane]

The synthetic vision on the Aspen provides the green circle, flight path vector, and if you have ADSB traffic or active traffic, it puts the traffic diamonds in your attitude indicator field of view.

[Eric Braun]

Synthetic vision is for better situational awareness especially on an instrument approach to minimums in an unfamiliar airport. I was IMC going into Bellingham, WA and it helped a lot. 

[larryb]

I find it helps a lot. Having the flight path marker on the end of the runway as you fly an approach confirms what the needles tell you. The flight path marker also reacts faster to wind and course changes compared to the needles. It also helps in visual approaches. 

[0TreeLemur]

This thread and your screen name reminded me of this potential answer to your question:

[kortopates]

I would never ever advocate this, but as CFI i hear a lot of confessions from my clients and i hear many on the advantages of synthetic vision by those that have learned how to use it. More than one pilot had told me they’re comfortable using it to descend below minimums on a precision approach if they really felt the need, and have done so at their home field or another airport they where very familiar with.
I’ll add that knowing how to position the ground pointer on the runway threshold and keep it there is like cheating flying an approach. There is a lot more too it, but it’s very powerful tool in the hands of a proficient pilot. These comments are based on the G500 and G1000 synthetic vision - i don’t have enough experience to comment on Aspen’s synthetic vision with a much smaller screen


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[midlifeflyer]

Situational awareness.. Same as a moving map. 

It can also useful in some abnormal/emergency situations, say engine failure at night (emergency) or a night landing with no runway lights (abnormal).

The potential distraction doesn't bother me. OTOH, I find HITS very annoying and turn it off.

[M20F]

When you have been in a relationship for a long time synthetic vision helps. 

[natdm]

- In AZ at night, you'll have tons of city lights, and then all of a sudden no lights at all for a big patch of land. Yes there's minimum altitudes on the VFR charts, etc etc, but it makes me feel a lot better looking at SVT and seeing nothing, instead of seeing a mountain. 

- Taking off from mountainous areas in general at night. I take time and plan turnouts and altitudes, but again it's nice seeing it on SVT.

- Engine out at night over mountainous area, this might somewhat help. Just remember the old engine out at night advice: turn off your landing lights, if on. When something reads 200AGL, turn it back on. If you don't like what you see, turn it back off.

So, I guess.. my answer is: At night, in mountainous areas, it's additional comfort. Someone also mentioned traffic awareness, it does help looking down and seeing the white diamond on the SVT and comparing it very quickly with the terrain. I almost instantly locate the traffic, even further out than I'm usually capable of.

[natdm]

On 9/9/2023 at 7:19 AM, midlifeflyer said:

The potential distraction doesn't bother me. OTOH, I find HITS very annoying and turn it off.

HITS? .. High Intensity Tail Stalls?..

Edit: OHHH, Highway In the Sky. I'm not fancy enough to have that. And it does sound annoying.

[Danb]

HITS are nice in real instruments 

[oregon87]

It is for new and somewhat arrogant pilots, half way through their instrument training, flying through thick forest fire smoke, going to an Oregon Duck game, thinking they can pull it off.  Ask me how I know...  

[A64Pilot]

Quiet a few years ago I flew with what was called Chartcase by Flight Prep, it was I believe the first real moving map EFB, long before an Ipad was thought of.

It’s been gone for years the Ipad based software they just couldn’t compete with price wise is my theory, but I don’t know why as they were ahead of everyone else back then.

I and most ran it on a Motion tablet that had a “view anywhere display” an honest to god sunlight readable display like say Garmin portables have just I think it was 10” but it could be seen in bright sunlight unlike an Ipad.

It had synthetic vision and Highway in the sky, which was neat, good for long boring flights, gave you something to play with, but at least highway in the sky the altitude was always a little off so you flew just above or below the boxes because altitude was GPS based and apparently GPS altitude isn’t as accurate as we want it to be.

In my opinion the terrain awareness of Garmin portables and I guess the real built in stuff is tough to beat for those night flights in the mountains, of course Foreflight has it too.

[ArtVandelay]

HITS are nice in real instruments 

I disabled it after the first flight, call me old fashion but I prefer the simplicity of the classic AI instrument.