New HUD for LSA

"Situational Awareness" is one of those phrases you hear a lot when aviation safety is the topic...and when isn't aviation safety the topic in a cockpit?

New on the market is a device to allow pilots to keep their eyes on the skies...while also having instrument readouts right in their field of view.

HUD, of Heads-Up Display, a military technology that allows pilots to get all the info they need without having to scan the instrument panel so often, is here for the small aircraft screen. Milan, Italy-based PAT Avionics is the maker of the new G-HULP.

: HUD displays let you keep eyes outside without missing critical readouts

Marco Mille, Chief Technology Officer for PAT, says this about it:"After three years of research and development, (HUD) technology is finally available to make experimental and light sport aircraft pilots safer."

The G-HULP allows pilots to easily monitor readouts such as air speed, altitude and course data, while looking forward, since the information is projected on a transparent glass display right above the instrument panel in the pilot's direct forward view. There's no more taking your eyes away to the panel in a critical or workload-intensive moment.

A laser projector system makes it all work. There are currently two versions: G-HULP Stand Alone (approx. $5,500) and G-HULP for Dynon SkyView (approx. $5.000). G-Hulp, says Mille, isalso "fully customizable".

To find out more, check out the website linked above or if you're going to Oshkosh next week, the device will have its debut at thePAT Avionics booth, space #4128 in the Exhibit Building D.

Download the Sporty's Oshkosh info app if you've got a smartphone, it'll help you find it, and that space, a lot easier.

James LawrenceWriter

"If it flies, it's cool" pretty much nails the ethos of James Lawrence. Milestones along the taxiway include boyhood obsessions with airplane models and science fiction; first flight lesson at 15 (Piper Cub); cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy, (class of '67); sailplane lessons in the California desert when he could afford it; built and flew his first hang glider (1973); magazine and book author and actor (TJ on tv's SWAT); former Editor (Ultralight Aircraft, Outdoor Photographer, Plane & Pilot); freelance writer/photographer since 1992; current LSA Editor-at-Large. Rents a local Piper Cub in Great Barrington; still loves the sky, from ground and air.