Cub Crafters Gets Okay For EXP Garmin Panel In Part 23 Plane

Cub Crafters announced earlier this week that it had earned FAA approval for the Garmin G3X integrated avionics suite in its X Cub, with the approval being a first-of-its-kind process. Certified last year, the X Cub is Cub Crafters' latest Part 23 airplane. The new panel gives the X Cub tremendous electronics capabilities, with a large single display, integrated nav/comm, flight management system, solid-state attitude, a full-featured digital autopilot, ADS-B Out compliance, and much more.

Courtesy of Cub Crafters

It has been in business for decades out of its Yakima, Washington, hangar factory, rebuilding Super Cubs and launching a lineup of Part 23 and amateur-built Cub-like models, including the popular Carbon Cub, so the company has a great deal of experience with installing non-certificated avionics systems, including many from longtime partner Garmin International. They also saw how overwhelmingly popular the G3X option was in the experimental Carbon Cub.

But never before had it attempted to earn certification for an experimental piece of equipment in a Part 23 airplane. But the FAA's new risk-based philosophy of certification seemed just the opening it needed, so on the heels of a couple of high-profile approvals of formerly homebuilt-only panel electronics (the Dynon D10 and the Garmin G5 attitude instruments), Cub Crafters decided to see if it could get the same outcome with an entire flat-panel system. To the surprise of everyone outside of Yakima, it succeeded in doing just that.

Cub Crafters will have its G3X-equipped X Cub on display at AirVenture Oshkosh next week. The G3X system will be available as an option on X Cubs delivered starting in January of 2018.

Learn more at Cub Crafters and Garmin.

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Isabel GoyerWriter

A commercial pilot, editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.