Garmin Shocker: Inexpensive Retrofit Autopilots For Wide Range Of Planes
Avionics giant shares details of program for light aircraft of nearly every description
With the announcement of its latest product for the used market, Garmin has done the seemingly impossible. It has once again changed the face of the retrofit avionics industry. The two new products, the GFC 500 and GFC 600 are intended for two separate classes of airplanes, the 500 for light low-to-mid performance singles and the 600 for high-performance singles and twins, including turbines. Both retrofit autopilots will have an impressive range of capabilities, including just about every feature of the popular GFC 700, including altitude hold and capture, indicated airspeed hold and vertical speed hold, plus nav and heading tracking. In addition, they will feature ESP envelope protection functions, which protect the plane from a variety of potentially unsafe flight scenarios, including overbanking, overspeed and underspeed protection, along with having Garmin's Straight and Level button, which the pilot can push to return to a straight and level attitude to avoid an emerging loss of control.
The autopilots will come with their own servos, which are different for the two products and which is one of the chief differentiators between them. Both servo types are brushless DC units, but the 600's are hardened for an extra margin of safety in harsher environmental conditions, such as might be encountered at very high altitudes or in icing conditions. The 600 can also integrate with a wide variety of existing panel-mount equipment, including the Garmin G500/G600 displays, as well as equipment from other manufacturers, so that, in theory, owners of many planes with an already well-equipped panel will be able to add the Garmin autopilot without having to change the rest of the panel.
While the GFC 600 autopilot is designed to TSO standards as a stand-alone unit, the GFC 500 is based on Garmin's G3X autopilot, popular among homebuilders. The unit will interface with a Garmin G5 electronic flight display and will feature a dedicated autopilot controller with Garmin's familiar control wheel for setting airspeed and vertical speed values.
Cost of the GC 500 when paired with an existing G5 flight instrument is just $6,995, and can be purchased with a G5 primary display as a set for around $10,000. Garmin expects initial certification for the GFC 500 later this year in the Cessna 172, with certifications for the Cessna 182 and Piper PA-28 models to follow early next year.
The GFC 600 will sell for $19,995 for the A36 Bonanza and $23,995 for the Beechcraft Baron, two models for which Garmin has already earned STC approvals. Look for our flight report on the new autopilots in a coming issue of Plane & Pilot.
Learn more at Garmin.
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