I read the Perspective 560 page manual, and also sections of the
G1000 manuals for other aircraft, examined the hardware, received a
detailed explanation of the system from a Persecutive trained avionics
technician, and flew the Perspective. My conclusion is that it is a
slightly enhanced pair of 530's with a PFD and MFD in front of it. The
underlying architecture and code, plus SVT and a few other goodies are
based on old technology. My professional background was in computer
hardware, software and human interface technology and the Prospective
human interface at best can be described as crude. As an example during
my demo flight the demo pilot still used the twisty knobs to put in
frequencies. I asked him why he said habit, but when I pointed out that
you couldn't look at the display and the keyboard at the same time, so
you had to bounce back in forth he said that was probably the reason.
This is just one example of many very poor human interface design
issues including hard to read font size. My conclusion was, the system
was basically kluged together over time to catch up with integrated
avionics suites and it shows.
I then arranged to visit the Avidyne plant in Florida, and spent a
day with the designers. This included two hours on the simulator, a
examination of the hardware and software architecture as well as flying
the system for two hours. R9 is a ground up new design, with two
totally redundant interchangeable IFD's (Integrated Flight Displays)
connected by a redundant peer to peer data bus. The hardware and
software clearly represents the state of the art. The human interface
is superb, designed to be intuitive and absolutely minimize decisions,
actions and keystrokes to accomplish any function. The system
integrates a Control/Display Unit for data entry and operation with a
searate display next to the keyboard so their is no head bobbing or eye
movement. Features such as geofill, further minimize keystrokes. In my
opinion there is no comparison between the Perspective human interface
and R9, ones a kluge and ones a excellent purposeful effective ground
up new integrated design. Perspective has SVT now and a digital
autopilot (which is excellent), Avidyne will have SVT and a digital
autopilot by year end. I've seen the Avidyne SVT and know the Avidyne
test pilot who has been testing autopilots for years and based on what
he told me believe the SVT and Avidyne Autopilot will be at least as
good as the Garmin if not better. Both avionics suits are feature rich
and by year end feature wise, I believe it will be so close it will be
at the nit picking level. What the big separator is, is the human
interface, which means R9 is easier to learn, stay proficient and less
error prone therefore easier and safer to fly.
By the way in the past you asked how long will a G2 can you fly with
R9 after a Alt. 1 failure. The answer is an hour and 42 minuets
according to the test results submitted to the FAA. On a G3 it would be
until you ran out of fuel, however you don't not have to put up with
any revisionary mode of operation in case of a avionics component
failure with R9.
So the decision is do you put old technology avionics in the G3 or
do you put new technology avionics in a G2. I believe the second
alternative makes more sense for me, however prior to doing that I will
most likely give Cirrus the opportunity to deliver a new G3 with R9,
which in my opinion is the best solution of all.
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