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Melohn View Drop Down
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    Posted: 07 Aug 2025 at 9:25pm
Just finished reading the Vantage Pilot's guide and Installation manual. I have a few questions:

1) It appears as though SIU airplanes will get all of the PFD engine instruments that DAU planes see on the PFD, presumably via a high speed connection between them. Correct? I'm assuming this doesn't include Ammeter information, since that's funky with the manual ammeter switch in SIU planes. What about DALT? That doesn’t normally show with an SIU on the MFD, but will it with Vantage, where the PFD and MFD can communicate?

2) The Installation manual says the MFD now fully supports ADS-B In traffic and weather via RS232. If I currently have this connection from my transponder to an IFD, which in turn shares this information with a second IFD, do I need to connect anything else, or will IFD connected RS232 traffic/weather automatically propagate to the Vantage displays? Is there any reason one might need to connect a Skywatch device directly to the MFD, if the Skywatch already feeds the GTX 345 transponder, which produces blended TIS and Active traffic? The Skywatch gets position information from the PFD, right?

3) It appears as though the PFD can set modes on the DFC90 via touching the PFD screen. How does one do this, and does this offer the ability to add new features, like VNAV, as a PFD soft key for the DFC90 in the future?

Very excited to see these new displays get released; can't wait for mine!



Edited by Melohn - 07 Aug 2025 at 10:44pm
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AviSteve View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Melohn Melohn wrote:

1) It appears as though SIU airplanes will get all of the PFD engine instruments that DAU planes see on the PFD, presumably via a high speed connection between them. Correct? I'm assuming this doesn't include Ammeter information, since that's funky with the manual ammeter switch in SIU planes. What about DALT? That doesn’t normally show with an SIU on the MFD, but will it with Vantage, where the PFD and MFD can communicate?
Yes, the PFD will show SIU data as long as the MFD is running.  The SIU is physically wired to the MFD, so the PFD gets it from there.  DALT is supported on SIU-equipped aircraft.  It uses data from the ADC for that calculation.

Originally posted by Melohn Melohn wrote:

2) The Installation manual says the MFD now fully supports ADS-B In traffic and weather via RS232. If I currently have this connection from my transponder to an IFD, which in turn shares this information with a second IFD, do I need to connect anything else, or will IFD connected RS232 traffic/weather automatically propagate to the Vantage displays? Is there any reason one might need to connect a Skywatch device directly to the MFD, if the Skywatch already feeds the GTX 345 transponder, which produces blended TIS and Active traffic? The Skywatch gets position information from the PFD, right?
ADS-B devices connected to the IFD will share traffic and weather to the Vantage units, but not vice-versa.  If Skywatch is connected to the MFD or PFD, it will physically get position from that unit, but it really comes from the IFD.  I wasn't quite able to deduce your scenario regarding the GTX-345, but I would contact tech support for more information regarding that subject.

Originally posted by Melohn Melohn wrote:

3) It appears as though the PFD can set modes on the DFC90 via touching the PFD screen. How does one do this, and does this offer the ability to add new features, like VNAV, as a PFD soft key for the DFC90 in the future?
PFD DFC90 annunicators are for display only - there is no control aspect to them.
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I’ve read through the Vantage Pilot’s Guide and Install Manual, and have a few questions/observations:

Are Vantage checklists customizable like they are on the IFD? Will they show the same on Vantage on the IFD?

Is the Engine page configurable? Big pet peeve of mine, but % power gauge really should be replaced with a Fuel Flow Gauge.

Can Vantage accept Garmin GDL69A SXM input vs. the archaic XMD076? The IFD install manual can accept the newer SXM, but Vantage install manual does not address it.  I think AviSteve answered this above, but would like to confirm.  

Where is the new DFC90 Pilot’s Guide for Vantage (Avidyne website has old one under DFC90 listing)?  Are there bullet points for the differences?

Starting on Page 21 of the Vantage Flight Manual Supplement, in the bottom left it reads ‘NOT FAA APPROVED’ while earlier pages show ‘FAA APPROVED 6/11/2025’.

Where can one download panel CAD drawings to design a clean panel without placard overlays and custom cutting for things like ElectroAir Ignition Switch, Aithre CO Detector, USB power, etc?
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Melohn View Drop Down
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Quote ADS-B devices connected to the IFD will share traffic and weather to the Vantage units, but not vice-versa.  If Skywatch is connected to the MFD or PFD, it will physically get position from that unit, but it really comes from the IFD.  I wasn't quite able to deduce your scenario regarding the GTX-345

Currently, my Skywatch is connected to the PFD for position information input, which it in turn gets from the IFD, and it outputs to the MFD directly as well as the GTX 345, which blends the active and ADS-B traffic and sends that to one of the IFDs via RS422/232, which shares it with the other IFD. While I have MFD Release 8.2.2, I haven't connected the 345 to the MFD directly, since that would have required pulling the radio stack, which I won't do until Vantage installation time.

I'm thinking that the Skywatch no longer needs to output ARINC 429 to the Vantage MFD directly, since in the unlikely event of a TIS-B failure, the GTX will still pass along active traffic to the IFD, and it then to the other IFD and both Vantage displays.

As a backup scenario in the event of a loss of the 345, I have a Stratus 3, and one of my IFDs is configured to talk to it; again I assume that if the IFD gets traffic and weather from the Stratus, it will distribute that information to the other IFD and Vantage displays. This worked fine for me between the IFDs previously, although the direct connection to the transponder was more reliable, as it didn't rely on WiFi.

Thanks!



Edited by Melohn - 11 hours 33 minutes ago at 9:09pm
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Melohn View Drop Down
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Originally posted by AviSteve AviSteve wrote:


Originally posted by Melohn Melohn wrote:

3) It appears as though the PFD can set modes on the DFC90 via touching the PFD screen. How does one do this, and does this offer the ability to add new features, like VNAV, as a PFD soft key for the DFC90 in the future?
PFD DFC90 annunicators are for display only - there is no control aspect to them.


The Pilot's guide has the following section in the System Overview:

The integration with the DFC90 autopilot is a tighter integration

than previous display-autopilot integrations. This reduces the need

for manually pressing the autopilot control head buttons and

reduces pilot workload in many flight scenarios.
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