Avidyne Corp. today unveiled its new Vantage Flight Display Systems and announced that the first Vantage certification program will be a dual 12-inch diagonal upgrade for legacy Cirrus aircraft with the Entegra Flight Deck. According to the company, Avidyne Vantage features synthetic vision, hybrid touch user interface and dual-AHRS MFD reversion. The Avidyne Vantage Flight Display Systems are designed for forward-fit and retrofit applications in a variety of applications and display formats.

“We are incredibly excited to introduce Vantage as an innovative option for GA pilots seeking to update their flight decks,” said Dan Schwinn, Avidyne president. “We’ve challenged ourselves to provide large displays that are even easier to use than our earlier products, while being more capable and functional than anything we have done before. Eventually, the Avidyne Vantage product line will include a wide range of display sizes and levels of functionality, and certification across a wide range of aircraft and associated legacy equipment. Vantage provides pilots with an uncluttered interface and beautiful design with powerful capabilities that dramatically enhance situational awareness and make flying safer and more enjoyable.” More...

Garmin today announced Smart Glide, a new safety tool that helps pilots in loss of engine power emergencies by automating tasks to reduce pilot workload. According to Garmin, Smart Glide joins Garmin Autoland as a part of the Autonomí family of autonomous flight technologies.

In the event of engine power loss in flight, pilots can activate Smart Glide with an optional dedicated Smart Glide button or by holding the Direct-to button for two seconds to initiate an activation. Once activated, Smart Glide recommends an airport estimated to be within glide range and automatically creates a direct-to route. More...

To help owners of general aviation aircraft modernize their cockpits, the Aircraft Electronics Association will randomly award five aircraft owners with $1,000 toward an avionics upgrade during the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture Oshkosh, July 26 through Aug. 1, in Wisconsin.

Aircraft owners may enter to win one of the five $1,000 awards in Hangar B at Wittman Regional Airport, booth No. 2035/2036, beginning July 26. The AEA will announce one winner each day from July 26 through July 30 via its social media outlets on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Aircraft owners must be at least 18 years old to register to win. Each of the five winners must use an AEA-member avionics repair station to complete the installation. Each entry gives aircraft owners a chance to win one of the five daily drawings. For official rules and contest entry forms, visit the AEA's booth at AirVenture. More...

Published annually by the Aircraft Electronics Association, the 2021-22 edition of the AEA Pilot's Guide will be unveiled with free distribution at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin, July 26 through Aug. 1. AEA staff members will distribute thousands of complimentary copies to pilots and aircraft owners at the AEA's AirVenture booth, No. 2035/2036 in Hangar B at Wittman Regional Airport.

This year marks the 19th annual edition of the AEA Pilot's Guide, a consumer's directory loaded with educational articles, timely information and data about the ever-changing world of avionics technologies. The publication helps pilots and aircraft owners make better buying decisions and locate nearly 1,300 AEA member companies in more than 40 countries, including government-certified repair stations specializing in maintenance, repair and installation of avionics and electronic systems in general aviation aircraft. It also includes the manufacturers and distributors of these products, as well as technical schools and universities, engineers and consultants for the industry. Individuals residing in the United States may request a free copy of the AEA Pilot's Guide at aeapilotsguide.net/request.asp while supplies last. More...

Congratulations to Tres Whitt of Islip Avionics, who won a $100 Visa gift card, courtesy of Southeast Aerospace, for submitting the correct answer in this month's Mystery Make and Model challenge featured in the previous issue of AEA Wired. The unit is an Edo-Aire R-556E.

Avionics technicians can put their "inside" knowledge to work in the next issue of AEA Wired, so stay tuned for the next Mystery Make and Model challenge! All correct answers submitted throughout 2021 will be entered to win a random drawing for a $500 Visa gift card at the end of the year, also from Southeast Aerospace.

AEA members can find a link to register for the next free webinar on the AEA website with their member login and password.

With more than 15 years of managing anti-drug and alcohol misuse prevention programs, NATA Compliance Services has seen a thing or two! Join us as we review the impacts of marijuana legalization on our industry, common errors and oversights, training requirements and much more. More...

The Aircraft Electronics Association unveiled the dates and locations for its 2021 AEA Connect Conferences in the United States. Online registration is available for both attendees and exhibitors at aea.net/connect.

The annual AEA Connect Conferences are two-day events that personally connect general aviation industry professionals. The schedule is as follows:

The AEA continues to monitor travel restrictions and guidance from authorities around the world and will make a determination whether Connect Conferences can take place in Europe, Canada, and South Pacific. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. More...

The Aircraft Electronics Association's Educational Foundation recently announced the names of the individuals who were awarded scholarships for the 2021-22 academic year.

The AEA Educational Foundation annually awards scholarships to students pursuing a career in avionics or aircraft maintenance, as well as students from AEA member companies. The Foundation was created in 1990 to enhance, promote and secure the future of aviation maintenance by furthering the education of students, technicians, members of the AEA and others as determined by aviation industry needs.

Since its inception, the AEA has awarded more than $1.5 million in scholarships. Individuals interested in one or more of these scholarships for the 2022-23 academic year may download an application after Oct. 1, 2021. More...

Countless electric vertical takeoff and landing air vehicles are in development, and this will create opportunities for avionics experts who understand aerospace interconnection technology.

“There are a lot of companies coming into eVTOL projects from outside of aerospace, and some will have quite a time with certain performance issues in certification,” said Tom Turner, product manager for power and grounding with Carlisle Interconnect Technologies, an Aircraft Electronics Association member company since 1985. “There are a lot of constraints involved. The eVTOL companies need to work with companies which understand the regulatory environment, or they are going to have a terrible time achieving airworthiness certification.”

Turner said traditional avionics shops, harness shops and interconnect companies like Carlisle understand the special requirements of aviation certification, whereas Silicon Valley startups building eVTOL air vehicles as a first step into aviation might not be up to speed. He believes they are going to need help from aviation and avionics experts to achieve certification. More...

If you are not quite ready to take the AET test, AEA has you covered.

Avotek, an AEA member and training partner, offers online courses to help avionics technicians prepare for the AET exam and is offering a member discount of 40% off.

The Fundamentals of Aircraft Electronics Part I - Electricity and Electronics and The Fundamentals of Aircraft Electronics Part II - Maintenance Practices and Aircraft Fundamentals are the essential guides to aircraft electronics associated with AET certification.

To access the coupon codes, you will need to be logged in to the AEA website. AEA members get 40% off each course with the coupon codes. More...

With all due respect to Louis Blériot, Alberto Santos-Dumont, the Wright brothers, and every other powered-flight pioneer, they have nothing on Igor Sikorsky. Why? Well, having flown a lot of airplanes and helicopters, it comes down to the simple fact that airplanes want to fly, and helicopters don’t.

Sikorsky took what amounted to parts from a plumber’s supply wagon and fashioned a truly incredible flying machine. But while helicopters can do some amazing things, they’ll fight you every step of the way. Take your hands off the controls for just a second, and your world turns upside down.

“Helicopters are inherently unstable aircraft,” stated Conor McDougall, aviation media relations specialist at Garmin. “The amount of work it takes to control a helicopter is much higher than any fixed-wing aircraft. Even on a good day, the pilot is just so much busier flying a helicopter. They’re very task saturated, and when you add in any kind of DVE (degraded visual environment), it’s much more difficult.” More...

Throughout its long history, Honeywell has always been focused on the future of flight. How this has manifested itself in the last few years is through the company’s dedication to developing innovative technologies for urban air mobility and unmanned aerial systems.

In June 2020, the company took its commitment to UAM and UAS to the next level by launching a new business unit dedicated to the growth of autonomous and eco-friendly flight. This initiative was followed in September by the creation of a next-generation avionics lab located at Honeywell’s Deer Valley facility in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Urban Air Mobility Lab is a dedicated space for Honeywell to research, develop and test technology, software and services to meet the needs of electric vertical takeoff and landing manufacturers and others in the new advanced air mobility market. Its centerpiece is a conceptual UAM vehicle flight deck, the first of its kind to demonstrate fly-by-wire controls and vehicle avionics integrated in a lab setting. More...

The United States Helicopter Safety Team is a rotor-wing public-private partnership focused on reducing the civil fatal helicopter accident rate. It is a sister organization to the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee and the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, the airline-centric safety organization.

Like the GAJSC and CAST, USHST membership consists of stakeholders including helicopter operators, aircraft manufacturers, Federal Aviation Administration representatives, and others, who take a data-driven approach to mitigating risk and improving safety.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary pause on in-person meetings, the group continued to meet virtually and advanced their work, including two significant initiatives. More...

The AeroLEDs development team knew that light-emitting diodes were the key to providing not only brighter aircraft lighting, but also lights that were light years more reliable. In fact, according to the company, its SunSpot light is rated at 30,000 hours mean time between failures and will literally outlast any of the aircraft it’s installed on.

“LEDs are solid-state devices with no filaments to wear out or break,” AeroLEDs CEO Nate Calvin said. “Vibration and age are no longer an issue. You also have much better visibility due to the higher-color temperature that LEDs deliver. Daytime recognition is much better in any environment.

“AeroLEDs was founded in 2006, and our intent was to develop products that would redefine the aircraft lighting industry as it was. At the time, there was not an all-LED anti-collision/nav/strobe light unit available." More...

Few people deserve recognition as an Aviation Ace more than aircraft technicians who have served on the front lines of the industry for 50 years or more without incident. Last year, Dale Arthur Meiler, retired aircraft inspector for Banyan Air Service, received the Federal Aviation Administration’s Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award, honoring him for just that reason. Taylor, who served as the Wright brothers’ mechanic, built and maintained early Wright engines, including the first aircraft engine for the Wright Flyer.

While the journey for every aircraft maintenance technician begins differently, for Meiler, it took root like so many others do – in the military. Meiler served three years in the U.S. Army as a helicopter mechanic during the Vietnam War, maintaining Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters and Bell UH-1 Iroquois “Huey” utility helicopters as well as light observation helicopters. However, the seeds of Meiler’s interest in aviation were sown long before the military.

“As a teenager, my friend’s father worked for American Airlines in Buffalo,” said Meiler, who grew up in Lancaster, New York. “During the summer, I would ride with his family to the airport to pick up his dad after his shift. I remember walking in the hangars and seeing the Boeing 707s and 727s. It was so cool, such an awesome thing to me.” More...

During the year 2020, the airlines suffered deep loses – in enplanements, as counted by revenue passenger miles; per seat-mile yields; in revenues; and in profits. General aviation aircraft sales and deliveries declined. Avionics sales still fared pretty well, according to the Aircraft Electronics Association’s Avionics Market Report, with spending on panel retrofits down, forward-fit down – as expected with the decline in new-plane deliveries – and in total sales. Through the first quarter of 2021, both segments – retrofit and forward-fit – showed signs of recovering.

Additionally, one segment of general aviation held its own, despite the headwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic and a Federal Aviation Administration effort to revise the rules defining light sport aircraft that’s had the effect of depressing sales and acting as a brake on the research and development of new and follow-on models of the segment. Meanwhile, pilots still covet the idea of low-cost entry-level aircraft they can fly with nothing more than a driver’s license in lieu of a medical certificate or a Basic Med approval. More...

In January, Scott Hall joined Flight Data Systems to lead the company’s business development in the United States. With more than 20 years in aviation, Hall has held sales and business development roles with several Aircraft Electronics Association member companies, including avionics and in-flight entertainment manufacturers, a Part 145 repair station, and aerospace and avionics engineering firms.

“Each role was a challenge at first, but I’ve always been interested in the different areas of our industry,” he said. “I’m able to apply the knowledge I accrued in all of those previous positions to CVR and FDR programs.”

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Flight Data Systems offers data acquisition, data recording, data storage and data analysis solutions. Recently, the company launched the SENTRY Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder. It’s the “lightest, smallest and lowest power consumption TSO’d ED-112A recorder ever manufactured,” according to Flight Data Systems’ press release. More...

Four-time Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel gazed at the sky before this year’s season opener in Bahrain to see a Gulf Air Boeing 787 Dreamliner practicing for the opening ceremonies. Like many sporting events, F1’s opening ceremonies often include a flyover of notable, impressive aircraft, but Vettel didn’t see a cool airplane commemorating a fun sporting event – he saw wasted fuel and unnecessary carbon dioxide emissions and shared his concerns with F1 race management.

As a result of Vettel’s observation and concerns, the next Gulf Air flight over the track was conducted with biofuel produced by Neste, with the potential to cut emissions by 80% over traditional fossil fuels.

The International Air Transport Association and the International Business Aviation Council set goals to cut emissions by 50%, compared to 2005 by 2050 and to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020. Use of sustainable aviation fuel, a drop-in, safe alternative to traditional fossil fuels, was on the rise in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. More...

The AEA’s new online training platform called AERO, short for the Aerospace Education Resource Online system, allows users to train at their own pace with the ability to pause and resume courses at their convenience. In addition, AERO operates like a personal learning management system with a history of training and the ability to print certificates from completed courses.

All previous online training from the AEA has been migrated to AERO and is available exclusively to AEA members at aea.net/aero with a member login and password. AEA AERO will continue to add content to help members accomplish their training goals. Members with questions about the new AERO online training system may contact Aaron Ward directly at aaronw@aea.net. More...

Certified Repair Station Training (1 seat remains)

This weeklong course provides an interactive environment to learn, understand and implement the regulations that govern repair station design and operations. Current quality managers, technicians, mechanics, and repairmen who are involved in the management of a repair station as well as individuals looking to establish a 14 CFR Part 145 repair station should attend.

This course is designed for avionics technicians or apprentices who want to learn more about aircraft instrument systems and better understand their operation, installation considerations, and maintenance to become more effective troubleshooters. From simple mechanical gauges to complex electrical and electronic systems, this course covers nearly every instrument system in an aircraft.

Basic Wiring & Avionics Installation (SOLD-OUT)

This course is designed for certificated repairmen, new avionics technicians, aviation maintenance technicians and recent graduates interested in improving or acquiring the skills necessary to perform avionics installations. This three-day seminar employs in-depth theory and hands-on lab exercises to immerse the attendee in the best practices used to plan, manage, and install a general aviation avionics panel.

Basic Pitot-Static & Transponder Theory, Testing & Troubleshooting (SOLD-OUT)

This course is designed for entry-level avionics technicians or those looking for basic training on pitot-static and aircraft transponder systems. This two-day course covers the history and theory of operation of pitot-static instruments and transponders, as well as system setup, hands-on testing, and the troubleshooting skills necessary to perform FAR 91.411 and 91.413 checks.

Primary Flight Display Installation & Integration (14 seats remain)

Technicians will learn how to plan, install, interface, configure and check out an installation of a primary flight display, EHSI and GPS/nav/comm consisting of dual Garmin GI 275, a Garmin GTN 650 touch screen, and a Garmin GTX 345 transponder. Designed for technicians who have experience with avionics installation practices and are looking for more training integrating common general aviation installations.

Bench Basics 101 (New course: 13 seats remain)

This course is designed for technicians who have experience with basic avionics installation practice, familiar with basic soldering skills and are looking for experience in LRU bench testing and avionics troubleshooting. Bench testing Nav, VHF comm and transponders will be the focus of study. Technicians will fabricate a general-purpose test panel that they will use in the course. Attendees will keep their fabricated test panel upon course completion.

This course is designed for technicians who have experience with basic avionics installation practice and are looking for experience in transponder LRU bench testing, transponder flight line testing and aircraft troubleshooting. ADS-B transponders systems will be the focus of study. Attendees will keep their fabricated wire harness upon course completion.

This course is designed for technicians who have experience with basic avionics installation practice and are looking for experience in avionics flight line testing, LRU bench testing and aircraft troubleshooting. VOR, localizer, glideslope, marker beacon and VHF comms will be the focus of study.

Attendees will learn the proper methods for conducting pitot-static and transponder tests and inspections. This full-day course offers hands-on training, including a regulatory review and an explanation of the proper administrative procedures for completing these critical certifications. With so many questions surrounding ADS-B, this course will provide the answers and what you need to know.

As today’s modern airplanes become much more technologically advanced, so must the professionals who maintain them. The advanced avionics and instrumentation systems used in these aircraft rely on various forms of digital databus communication. Understanding digital databus theory is becoming more and more important for avionics technicians, and even A&P mechanics, to effectively test and troubleshoot these highly advanced aircraft systems.

Avionics Installation for Experimental Aircraft (15 seats remain)

This in-person course is targeted for the homebuilder or avionics technician who wants to learn about performing an avionics installation in an experimental aircraft. The class focuses on the Garmin G3X Touch system, and a simplified example harness is constructed as part of the hands-on portion of the class. While the G3X Touch system is the primary focus, the wiring principles and general guidance can be applied to any experimental avionics system. From the do-it-yourselfer to the avionics shop looking to carve a niche, this class has something for everyone.

ADS-B Configuration, Testing & Troubleshooting (15 seats remain)

This course is designed for currently employed repair station personnel and installers of ADS-B systems. Approximately 7% of all general aviation ADS-B installations are non-compliant based on the FAA’s ADS-B Performance Monitoring System. This course focuses on the proper configuration and testing of ADS-B installations to ensure your installation meets the performance requirements and regulations. Also included are troubleshooting tips and tricks that will help you resolve the common problems found in ADS-B installations.

This course is designed for certificated repairmen, new avionics technicians, aviation maintenance technicians and recent graduates interested in improving or acquiring the skills necessary to support inflight connectivity system installations and maintenance. This eight-hour training enables aircraft technicians and operators to gain understanding on the basic airborne networks, IFC systems, and the services they provide.

For individuals interested in pursuing professional opportunities in the avionics industry, the job listings page on the AEA website is your one-stop resource. The AEA jobs board provides informational links on how to get AET certified, an avionics technician job summary and wage review, along with scholarship opportunities within the industry. Search the AEA's job listings and see what's on your horizon. Free resume posting is available. Are you up to the challenge? More...

Is your business hiring? The AEA jobs board makes it easier for AEA members to find their next avionics technician, quality manager, inspector, sales representative or engineer.

AEA members may submit a free job posting after entering their username and password at AEA.net/Jobs. Member companies that optionally choose to upgrade their job posting for a premium will have preferred online placement and also will be published in the next edition of Avionics News. For more information about premium job listings, contact Rachel Hill, AEA advertising executive, at rachelh@aea.net.