IFD540 Draft Pilot Guide Available

• p.1-11, "COM-NAV" para, last sentence:  "The radio can act as a 16 watt or 10 watt transmitter."  This makes it sound like a user-selectable option, perhaps via a settings menu somewhere.  I think, though, that the radio is delivered with either a 10W or a 16W transmitter (and that the 16W option costs more than a thousand dollars).  Suggest rephrasing to clarify.
• p. 1-11, last para:  
• "...when the bezel Frequency Swap button is pressed..."  If this is the button with the up/down arrow icon on it just above the USB port, this is the first time it's been called a "Frequency Swap" button.  On p. 1-7, this button is labeled in the graphic as the "Com/Nav Swap" button, but then called the "Active/Standby Swap" button in the bullet list right below the graphic.  Not only do I not know what the proper name of this button is, it has not yet been explained how this button knows whether I want to swap the Com or the Nav freq when I push it.
• "In the example above where the user has set up 4 com slots to be displayed..."  I don't see an example above.  There are three examples on p. 1-12 (which would be "below"), but none of them have 4 com slots displayed.
• p. 1-13, "Tuning", first para:  So, if I start spinning the manual knobs to change a freq as described, which of the various freq slots will be affected?  Same question for the 3rd and 4th paragraphs.  (I.e., how do I tell the IFD which of the com or nav slots I want to change before I use any of those tuning methods, or which slot does it target by default?)
• p. 1-16, 17, "Power Control" and "Start-Up Sequence".  Seems odd that this comes sort of in the middle of the "general operations" section.  Personally, I'd put these at the top of the "GENERAL IFD OPERATIONS" section, either before or immediately after the BEZEL LAYOUT.  But maybe you've got focus group input that says your sequencing of info is better, I dunno.
• p. 1-20, NOTE box:  Consider spelling out "Vectors to Final", and maybe specifying "IFR approach" for the benefit of VFR-only pilots who may be unfamiliar with these terms.  (Maybe FAF, too, though by that point a VFR-only pilot should have figured out this is all IFR stuff that can be ignored, and IFR pilots will understand.)

 Can you halt the sequencing through an OBS'd waypoint, and prevent it from transitioning to GPS guidance further along on the next route segment?  As long as you set up the OBS so that it's a "TO" course, the sequence will happen and cannot be disabled (halted).  If you dial it so that the geometry is "FROM", then you won't sequence.

The fuel timer callout, when does that start timing, on takeoff? I'm not sure which one you are asking about.  If you are referring to the switch tanks alert, that timer starts at power on.   If you are talking about estimated fuel at waypoint/destination displays in the flight plan or calculators, then it relies on fuel flow and FMS calculated time to that point.  If I didn't answer the real question, please clarify.

It is too bad that you can't have BOTH block and air times/total times, on the timers, or can you?   No, there is no capability for that.  I hadn't thought of that capability until you mentioned it here and just added it to our system for candidate feature adds.

Very little mention of the powerful altitude constraint functionality in the docs, and no mention of the Boeing Banana -- that will be included in first release, will it not? Will look to add more description in the manual.   As for the Boeing Banana feature, I think you are referring to the Range to Climb arc which indicates the predicted point of reaching your altitude pre-select value.  If so, that is NOT in this release.   We have it in R9 but that's in conjunction with the VNAV capability of our DFC100 autopilot.  We view it as needing to know current vertical speed and in R9 we use the air data supplied VS.  We elected not to use GPS derived vertical speed in this release because if you are not in autopilot vertical speed mode (or something similar) then that range-to-climb arc tends to breakdance all over the display.  Unlike a true integrated flight deck, the IFD540 does not know what autopilot mode you happen to be in.

Any word when the simulator software may appear?  Yes, it will be available prior to shipping the certified units, at least the Apple-compatible version.   As I have noted in other threads, we've had the Apple compatible version running for more than a year and now are working to get it on the Apple store for mass downloads.