Flight Design’s new CTLSi. photo by James Lawrence
If you know Garmin’s touchscreen aera 500-560, you already know how to work the 796… though it offers much more than the smaller units.
Dynon’s popular SkyView now presents weather, traffic, and allows control of the transponder and autopilot.
You can add GPS and ADS-B info to your iPad or smartphone using Dual Electronic’s new XGPS170.
After flying more than 350 different aircraft models, I became rather adept at what some pilots call “stick wiggling.” The reference is for all the actions you take to physically fly the plane. Heck, it’s about all you do on very basically-equipped ultralight aircraft that I still love to fly. Modern LSA, however, typically offer loaded instrument panels and while I check out stalls, flight qualities and landings of a Light-Sport Aircraft, I rarely get any time to play with the panel goodies.
Fortunately, a recent experience in a brand-new Flight Design CTLSi provided a three-hour window to wiggle the stick plus a whole lot more. Like a majority of late-model LSA, this aircraft was equipped with a full glass panel, comprised of dual 10-inch Dynon Sky View screens on either side of a Garmin aera 796. Checking me out was Brian Boucher, an airline pilot who operates Florida Light-Sport Aircraft from my home airport at Spruce Creek. Brian will be a dealer for Flight Design models also providing maintenance and other services.
I took a four-hour Dynon SkyView class almost a year ago and it felt like I’d forgotten everything. Some of it stuck but it was helpful to have Brian showing me around these highly capable devices. SkyView incorporates the usual mind-boggling array of PFD/EMS/GPS with Synthetic Vision but this CTLSi also had the Dynon transponder and auto pilot. The Garmin aera 796 offered traffic alerts, XM weather, every chart you might need and so much more. Frankly, the whole setup was sensory overload and three hours of actual use is still not enough to master all it can do.
By the time we completed the round trip I was feeling good. I made two good landings proving my stick wiggling skills were intact. And I knew a great deal more about the dazzling panel. Both activities are fun, but they are separate skills and each needs constant polishing for best results.
Dynon Avionics is now shipping their ADS-B unit that coordinates with the SkyView system. A remotely mounted module provides easy — and free! — access to weather and traffic information. Selling for $995 the new unit is an affordable and permanently mounted ADS-B “In” device designed specifically for experimental and light sport aircraft. Paired with Dynon’s Mode-S transponder, you also get ADS-B “Out” that wakes up the ADS-B ground stations and causes them to send a traffic portrait that includes all known ADS-B targets around the SkyView-equipped aircraft. The new ADS-B capability only functions in the USA.
Coordinating with the new hardware, SkyView Software Version 5.0 was recently released to support ADS-B weather, traffic and more. Version 5.0 is a free upgrade for all existing SkyView owners.
Dual Electronics has started shipping its new XGPS170 panel-top unit with ADS-B receiver that works with iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Dual’s tiny device currently works with WingXPro from Hilton Software and the company said it will soon be able to use apps from Jeppesen, Flight Guide, and other developers. XGPS170 features a high-accuracy WAAS GPS receiver plus an ADS-B receiver that can present weather and traffic. The receiver, which sells for $799, connects wirelessly via Bluetooth, and can link to two tablets simultaneously. A built-in rechargeable battery lasts up to five hours in continuous use, and a 12-28V charger is included.
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