It's not often that a new piece of avionics comes out that changes a paradigm. The introduction of GPS certainly did that in the 1990s as did the Avidyne Entegra and G1000 in 2003 and 2004 respectively. I just flew behind the Aspen Avionics EFD1000 Pro and frankly I think it is in the same leagues with these other innovations as game changers, since it lets you upgrade any older aircraft with a glass panel at a relatively low cost. In fact it’s such a good product, I’m annoyed that I didn’t think of inventing it!
Integrated glass cockpits have been...
the Holy Grail of aviation for decades. After showing up first in military and commercial aviation, they trickled down to general aviation with remarkable speed. However, many systems are retrofitable only in high-end aircraft (e.g. the G1000 in King-Airs). Regardless, they would be unaffordable for the bulk of the single-engine aircraft fleet.
Enter Aspen Avionics and the EFD1000 Pro. I like to think of it as a G1000 in a box. To be more precise, it’s largely equivalent to the PFD portion of a G1000 and fits inside a standard 3-1/8 instrument case, not a box per se. The form factor is pure genius. Simply pull out your existing attitude indicator and directional gyro and replace them with an EFD1000 Pro. No expensive sawing and reconstruction of instrument panels. So on top of a bargain price, installation cost is modest. Thus the EFD1000 Pro is elegant not only in simplicity and performance, but in total cost of ownership, a rare find in modern avionics.
What's Inside Although the system physically covers only two holes in your instrument panel, it provides a digital replacement for all six instruments! A key benefit is an artificial horizon line that stretches across the entire display, making it easier to spot any inadvertent turns you might enter while in the clouds. Airspeed, altitude and vertical speed indicators are displayed as moving tapes.
The lower half of the display is dominated by an HSI that can display a base map and up to three navigation sources: GPS, NAV1 and NAV2. The map type varies depending upon whether you’re flying with the PILOT, PRO or ATP version of the system. Pilots unfamiliar with an HSI will quickly adapt to using it and fall in love with it. Plus, since it’s slaved to the system’s magnetometer, there’s never a need to set it to the compass. If you’ve ever tried to fly IFR with a really old directional gyro that constantly needs resetting to the compass heading, you’ll really appreciate this feature!
What makes all of this possible is the magic that drives any modern glass cockpit aircraft: a built-in Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) and Air Data Computer (ADC). An AHRS provides the electronics smarts that replaces all of the gyro instruments. By combining information from the accelerometers, rate sensors and tilt sensors of which it is composed, an AHRS “knows” it’s attitude at all times and displays that information through the HSI, attitude, and turn rate indicators.
An ADC processes information from the pitot-static lines, which bring in data about the air outside the airplane. It provides information on altitude, indicated airspeed, vertical speed, and outside wind direction and strength.
The system integrates with most autopilots and of course with your existing GPS and NAV radios to display and track navigational signals. It can also display a flight director, depending upon the autopilot used. During transition to any glass cockpit, most pilots worry about how the loss of an alternator and eventually all electrical power will affect their digital displays. Having thought of just about everything, Aspen includes a backup battery in the system. A backup GPS is also provided for emergency purposes if your external GPS decides to go “toes up."
For ultimate redundancy, a second and even a third PFD can be added to your instrument panel. This provides a backup not only for electrical failure, but also for any possible internal component failure such as a failed AHRS or ADC. The company has also announced a Multifunction Display (MFD) version of the product in the same form factor, so that it can replace two other instruments in the panel and be mounted adjacent to the PFD.
Transitioning to the System
I contacted Aspen Avionics earlier this year to see if I could take a demonstration flight at Sun ‘n Fun, but they offered an even better solution—a flight at my home airport of Palo Alto, Calif. Evan Williams was one of their early customers. He runs the Sundance Flying Club, which has three airplanes equipped with different version of the EFD1000. We met to discuss the system in early April but, due to high winds, didn’t fly actually fly until last week.
Evan says says total transition time for pilots with no HSI or glass cockpit experience takes about 3-4 hours, including ground instruction and a single flight. For non-IFR pilots, he often turns off the airspeed and altitude tape displays for the beginning of the flight to declutter the screen and ease the transition.
We spent over an hour reviewing large diagrams of the system and discussing its operation before heading out to fly. The club often starts pilots in their Cessna 172N that has a PFD but no GPS or autopilot, and then exposes them to their Piper Archer, equipped with a PFD and GPS though no autopilot. We flew their V35A Bonanza, equipped with an EFD10000 PRO, Garmin GNS 430W GPS and autopilot. Although built in 1968, the aircraft now has many of capabilities of the Cirrus SR22 and G1000-equipped aircraft in which I spend most of my time.
Flying the System
Preflight was simple. We inspected the drain hole and Lightning Tape on the system’s Remote Sensor Module located on top of the aircraft. After setting barometric pressure with the lower right control knob, we were off and flying. It took me a moment to retrain my brain to look for airspeed and altimeter near the center of the panel; with the wider Garmin and Avidyne screens, I’m used to looking farther to the left and right for these. After a few seconds, everything fell into place and it felt like flying any full glass cockpit aircraft. Like those systems, the airspeed indicator has V references speed bugs, making it easy to identify best glide, Vr, Vy, and other critical airspeeds.
After a little hand flying to point us toward the Pacific Ocean, we leveled off at 3,500 feet and engaged the autopilot. Using the lower right control knob to change the heading bug and steer the autopilot seemed perfectly natural.
I then began playing with the HSI. Like the Avidyne and Garmin systems, pushing the CDI key in the lower middle cycles the navigation sources. Unlike these systems, instead of cycling between GPS, NAV1 and NAV2, I found myself toggling between GPS and NAV2. It turned out that in our configuration, NAV1 must be selected by pushing the Garmin 430s CDI key to switch between GPS and VLOC (NAV1). When NAV1 or NAV2 is selected on the course pointer, you can either turn the lower left control knob to center the needle or, better yet, just push the knob to center the needle with a TO indication.
Prior to the introduction of glass cockpits into GA aircraft in 2003, it was relatively rare to find RMI (radio magnetic indicators) or bearing pointers in small planes. Before that time, I only flew one aircraft with an RMI, a Piper Arrow previously used to train Japan Airlines pilots. Bearing pointers are simple in that they point directly toward a navigation source. Even better, the tail of the needle gives you a direct readout of the radial you’re on. I found it easy to set-up the EFD1000’s bearing pointers to display two local VORs.
Flying LPV and ILS approaches We flew both the RNAV (GPS) 30 Z into Half Moon Bay and the ILS 32R at Moffett Field. Loading the approach was done with the Garmin 430W. After the approach was loaded, the approach waypoints were displayed as part of the base map on the HSI, making it easy to visualize our position. By pushing the appropriate keys, we were able to couple the autopilot and have it follow both lateral and vertical guidance. I entered the decision altitude (DA) for each approach in the minimums window using the right control knob and the PFD alerted us when we reached approach minimums.
Other Capabilities
The HSI displays either a 360 degree compass rose or a 100 degree arc view, selectable by pushing one of the keys along the right side of the PFD. Different levels of declutter of the base map are selected using the MAP key and a Range key controls the map range. The slip/skid indicator is presented in conventional glass cockpit fashion as a trapezoid beneath a pair of triangles at the top of the attitude indicator. Rather than using rudder to “step on the ball,” pilots step on the “trap” to center it using rudder.
Altitude alerts are also provided. Any time you deviate by more than 200 feet from the altitude you set, a yellow alert sounds flashes and an alert tone sounds. Outside air temperature and winds aloft speed and direction are displayed at the bottom of the attitude indicator.
Pricing
The current list prices are $5,995 for the Pilot version and $9,995 for the Pro version of the EFD1000. Installation times vary widely, however Aspen tells me that 40 hours seems to be the consensus estimate among shops for an installation of the Pro version. I noticed when I was on the Aspen web site today that they’re offering a $1,000 rebate for any purchases of the Pro version until July 31.
I used to own a Cessna T210, but after teaching mostly in glass cockpit aircraft for the last five years, I’ve felt that it would be very hard for me to go back to owning a non-glass cockpit aircraft. Yet Aspen has come up with a very compelling value proposition for upgrading older aircraft to give them most of the capabilities of glass cockpit aircraft at a tiny fraction of the cost. Candidly, if I ever own an older aircraft again, it will be a no-brainer to upgrade it with an Aspen EFD1000.
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