Here’s to hoping Garmin (or better yet Dynon) figure out how to certify a DI replacement that can drive the King APs… Aspen did.
Or we can install the TrueTrak (now King) and pretend the restrictions don’t apply and we’re hand-flying the approaches. At least till King gets the restrictions removed (ha!)…
The Trio or Truetrak autopilots can’t fly an ILS, which is considerably limiting in Europe if you actually want to fly IFR in some real wx.
Aspen (EA100) or Garmin (GAD43) solved the certification issue in the main unit, with airdata or GPS inputs, so the KI256 emulator wasn’t so much work. HBK are having to create the whole thing in the KI300/KA310 combination, because they aren’t selling a “PFD” which contains an AHRS which is certifiable as a primary pitch/roll source.
If anyone has the IM for these, it would be really interesting.
The KI256-market must be huge (relatively speaking). I don’t understand why BK isn’t promoting this combo ad nauseum. You would think they’d post in-flight footage on Youtube and what not to show the capabilities of their gear. After all, the hardware is certified for quite some aircraft models.
The KI300 may have some issues. I have the following from one “insider”:
The KI300 indicator exists and has a similar (poor… as indicated in some
pictures on pilot forums) performance as the Sandia 340. Ca. 2yrs of BK
S/W tweaks to make it work better had no real results – all due to a total
BK engineering incompetence. So I’d say that it’s still only an indicator
(of a questionable quality) and as it is now there’s no way it can be a
good primary attitude indicator and (analog) attitude source for AP’s.
And if it ever becomes an analog attitude source for AP’s there’s another
question if it will ever be a digital A429 ARS data source, not to say an
ADAHRS data source. So there are not only H/W problems in the KA310 but the
whole system 300/310 is a problem – insufficient quality a primary data
source requires. As an excuse Sandia never intended the 340 to be a
PFD/A429 data source (from informed people). It was BK’s desperation to
have a KI after the original KI300 project turned to be a total disaster.
I’m interested in any information you may have on the Sandia’s SAI 340 “poor performance”. On paper (specifications) it looks like one of the best…
In the meantime I’m starting a collection of (more or less functioning) KI256s :-/
Make sure they are Mod 11. Prior to that, the outputs are unbuffered and when you swap them in/out, the autopilot nulls are likely to need adjusting.
I have two units now (well, one is residing in the UK now indefinitely). They’ll have to do until the Aspen MAX gets easa-stc’d. First reviews are rather positive and it seems they really offer what I want in my cockpit. No fancy map-in-HSI but a dedicated knob for hdg AND crs.
Uavionix bought Aerovonics.
Installation in a Bonanza (found on Beechtalk)
