One of GA's Favorite Turbo-Props Is Ready For A Glass Panel Makeover
The Garmin G1000 Retrofit for the King Air is adding a whole new world of utility and capability to an elder series of airplanes that are still regarded as some of the most versatile turbo-props in the business. Taking these elder airplanes and giving them the G1000 treatment will not only extend their useful lives but make them far safer and more capable aircraft than their original designers could have conceived of.
Elliott Aviation has been a leader in G1000 retrofits for the highly regarded King Air dynasty... and they are already performing these upgrades for the C90, B200/200 series with the 300/350 series coming in short order. The G1000 system features a 15-inch "big picture" Multi-Function Display (MFD), with a 10-inch Primary Flight Display (PFD) on each side. These monitors offer high-resolution XGA (1024 x768 pixel) color screens with wide viewing angles, advanced back-lighting, and crystal-sharp readability, even in bright sunlight.
The center MFD is used for engine and fuel systems monitoring, and also provides a detailed moving-map displaying the aircraft's position in relation to ground features, chart data, navaids, flight plan routings, and more. The map display is designed to allow pilots to add or delete overlays such as graphical weather, lightning, traffic, terrain and other avoidance system advisories in order to customize the map view at any given phase of the flight.
The pilot and co-pilot PFDs incorporate aircraft attitude, airspeed, climb rate, altimeter and horizontal course/heading information - as well as Flight Director command bar cues and mode information when combined with Garmin's GFC 700 automatic flight control system.
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