Garmin G3X alerts
 

I will be installing Garmin G3X displays together with a host of Garmin items.

Can the Garmin G3X system be programmed to have verbal and visual alerts.

John

CAS
 

The G3X Touch (GDU46x) can have an audio alert in conjunction with a visual cue for parameters as well as general purpose inputs (canopy open, alternator, etc.)

Configuring the parameter as "yellow+alert" or "red+alert" will cause the message to flash and a >bong< to sound.

Verbal alerts are fashionable, but... They're best used when immediate maneuvering is required (traffic, wind shear, terrain) but inappropriate for systems (pressures, temperatures, voltages). The systems warnings want don't require you to drop what you're doing and handle the problem right now -- they can wait a few seconds. And verbal alerts aren't good for stall warnings, either, as it takes too long to say the words, and for other reasons.

Ed

Garmin documentation recommends the audit out (tones and verbal) be connected to an "always on" audio channel. However, based on input from VAF posters, I used an "Aux" audio channel on my audio panel allowing me to selectively silence the alarms. It turns out to be a valuable bit of flexibility. Flying in to Johnson Creek, poor "bitchin' Betty" was beside herself with "Terrain, terrain" and "Traffiic, traffic" (I was following a lead aircraft) and her frantic help was a severe distraction, until silenced with a single button.

I got all the annoying terrain alerts in a left pattern at Hot Springs Arkansas. Not a typical place for it. You have a good idea here.

I hardly ever allow any kind of bichin' betty alerts. I think they are distracting to the point of causing a safety issue. It seems every avionic designer thinks his function is the most important thing in the panel (fixed or portable device) and insists his alerting be attached to unswitched audio. And the FAA goes along with it. And if left un-abated the hapless pilot starts to become desensitized to the system "always crying wolf" which is a safety issue on the opposite side of distraction.

If I wanted all that while flying I would bring along the ex wife.

Jim

G3X Touch Alerts
 

John,

The G3X Touch system has a number of different methods for alerting the pilot to different sets of triggers.

As Brian mentioned, you can program the Engine/Airframe Input’s to provide both aural (tone) and visual alerting when a certain threshold is met, by using the Red Range + Alert Gauge Marking. The procedure for programming this is on page 35-159 of the AL Revision of the G3X Touch Installation Manual. You can download the Installation manual from this web address: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?pa...00&tab=manuals

There are also other alerts the system will issue relating to things like traffic, terrain, obstacles, minimums, autopilot, altitude, and descent rate. There are custom settings and configurations for most of these. The Pilot’s Guide is a good resource for understanding how and when the various alerts will be triggered. It can be downloaded from the same link provided above.

Please let us know if you have any other questions. You can email us at G3Xpert@Garmin.com, or give us a call at 1-866-854-8433 Monday – Friday, 8:00 – 5:00 CT.

Thanks,

Justin

Hmmm
 

?...I think they are distracting to the pojnt of causing a safety issue...?

Really?

So we should do away with:

Traffic, traffic
Pull up
Wind shear
Obstacle
Fire bells
Airspeed low
Etc?

Yeah having flown professionally in aircraft with aural alerting systems for a long time (20 years), I found that puzzling too. Part of the reason things like GPWS aural alerts were invented was due to the number of aircraft permanently parked on the sides of mountains. Similar principle for stall alerts, TCAS, etc.

The real danger is using them but ignoring them. I can see isolated & specific cases where you might want to suppress certain alerts but overall they?re certainly not a retrograde safety step.

Yes
 

Yes, they are there FOR safety reasons...and ignoring them can be hazardous to your health...

Is there anyway to suppress or knowledge an alert and keep it from going off?

G3X Touch Terrain Alert Settings
 

We provide the option of enabling/disabling traffic or terrain alerts from the Traffic and Terrain pages, respectively. While on either one of these pages, press the Menu button and you will see this option.

If you have terrain alerts enabled, and expect to hear audible warnings, we want to make sure that warning is not muted. If you do not want to hear the terrain warnings, all you would need to do is disable them from the terrain page.

If you are experiencing nuisance terrain alerting, we do provide the ability to customize when alerts are generated by the system. There are a few different settings you can change to do this:

• Caution Elevation—The G3X Touch will provide an alert if the terrain or obstacle is within the default Caution Elevation or user-defined Caution Elevation.

• Look Ahead Time—Determines the maximum time when an alert annunciation occurs. For example, if 120 seconds is selected, the G3X Touch provides an alert up to 120 seconds before you reach the terrain or obstacle.

• Alert Sensitivity—The three Alert Sensitivity settings (Terrain, Obstacles, and Descent Rate) determine what level of alerts are annunciated. The G3X Touch defaults to ‘High’ sensitivity, which annunciates all red and yellow alerts at the time set in Look Ahead Time. ‘Medium’ sensitivity annunciates all of the red and the highest priority of yellow alerts. ‘Low’ only annunciates red alerts. ‘Off’ disables the alert.

See this post for a bit of insight into the practical modification of these settings: http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...89&postcount=8

• Accessing the terrain settings:

1) From the Terrain Page, press the MENU Key.

2) Touch Caution Elevation and touch 500ft Below, 750ft Below, or 1000ft
Below.

Or:

Touch Look Ahead Time and touch 60 Seconds, 90 Seconds, or 120 Seconds.

Or:

Touch Alert Sensitivity... > Terrain, Obstacles, or Descent Rate > Off, Low,
Medium, or High.

Or:

Touch Alerts to toggle between Enabled and Inhibited.

Or:

Touch Profile View to toggle on and off.


Thanks,


Justin

Thank you Justin. While this is very beneficial, I am wondering about any other alerts. Lets say that I am getting an alert for my oil temp that is a bit high and got my attention or the CO detector is alerting me. Can I accept/acknowledge it so it is not blinking at me any more?

+1

With my GRT, when an engine alarm activates, I get three acknowledge / inhibit options that pop up, including "inhibit flight." This ends the audio alerts, without permanently turning it off. It is very nice, as many of these alerts will go on forever, as the condition goes above and below the threshold repeatedly. My attention is captured and have no need for further audio; just lights and gauge readings. It is very important that the system initially gets my attention with audio. However, continuous repeats can be very distracting.

It would be nice to have something similar on the G3X. I fear that if I ahve to turn the alerting off to eliminate the distraction, I may forget to turn it back on at a later time.

Larry

Agreed!

I would prefer alerts be overruled/acknowledged via a "Master Caution" switch which is reset after power cycle or "Reset/Resume" button

Alerts
 

Mehrdad,

If Oil Temp is slightly high, you should be in the yellow range. Depending on your configuration, you may or may not trigger an alert for an excursion into the yellow range. If you are using the ?Yellow Range + Alert? gauge marking, we will flag a CAS message on the PFD. Audible alerts are not generated for sensor values in the yellow range.

If the ?Red Range + Alert? gauge marking is used, and your oil temperature rises to that range, an audible warning will be issued, and you will see a flashing Red CAS message on the PFD. If a CAS message is flashing, you can touch the message to suspend the flashing.

Thanks
Justin

I think the distraction issue is a valid point. Flying Tigers into Kuala Lampur comes to mind.

Flying VMC along the lakeshore in Chicago, proximate to many obstacles, I get a lot of nuisance warnings. All this happens when approach is trying call me. At the very least it's distracting and at worst it conditions you to ignore these warnings, then in IMC you start hesitating to the warning before reacting and maneuvering.

These warnings have probably saved 100's of lives but "Betty" has claimed some too.

In the Flying Tiger Line accident on approach to Kuala Lumpur, the crew did not react to GPWS alerts because they had a false mental model of their position while in IMC. They subsequently crashed into the terrain which the GPWS was telling them they were about to crash into.

The accident seemed to be a litany of poor procedures, poor radio phraseology, very poor crew management, and poor SA. Nuisance alerts were not a factor. The alerts they had were genuine and they duly ignored them, so I don?t really understand how the accident could be attributed to the mere presence of a terrain alerting system.

If you?re commonly flying at low altitude in VMC and get consequent nuisance alerting, you may want to turn terrain alerting off or have it setup with tighter proximity margins.

+1

In IMC never ignore a terrain warning; in VMC you may turn it off. Airliners usually have a dedicated button for this; Garmin offers the same using their menu. Maybe a dedicated button configured as a discr. input would be more convenient but..

Ummm
 

In an airliner, the terrain warning is NEVER turned off...

The system in an airliner is a bit more complex, some have 3 buttons (depends on aircraft type and configuration) for suppressing the alarm:

1 GLIDE SLOPE -if the approach is deliberately performed below G/S
2 GPWS flap override or OFF -when approach is performed with other than normal flaps configuration (reduced flaps landing) or landing gear problems
3 Terrain OFF -switch for system malfunctions (eg invalid position or disagreement), or turning off the enhanced mode for ditching, forced landing.. (kills the TAD and TCF functions -other basic GPWS modes remain active)

During night or IMC conditions, apply the escape procedure immediately. Do not delay reaction for diagnosis.

ok
 

So for the sake of clarity, the terrain warning system is NEVER turned off for normal operations...

I think the request raised here is not relevant to normal operation. The request is related to operating the airplane at non-standard airports surrounded by high terrain.

HONEYWELL: Pressing the TERRAIN INHIBIT switch inhibits TAD and TCF alerting and display, including Obstacles and Peaks when enabled. This is typically used when operating at an airport not in the terrain database. Selection of Terrain Inhibit does not cause the Terrain Inoperative or unavailable annunciation unless the aircraft is wired for this to occur. Terrain Inhibit requires manual deactivation.

BENDIX/KING: TERRAIN INHIBIT SWITCH: The purpose of Terrain Inhibit is to allow aircraft to operate without nuisance or unwanted warnings at airports that are not in the system database. Examples might be private airports or those with runways shorter than 2000 feet. Additionally, there may be some "VFR-only" airports where unique terrain features are in close proximity to the runway, and Terrain Inhibit may be used when operating in good VFR conditions. Terrain Inhibit should be NOT engaged for normal operations.
Note that the Terrain Icon shows a yellow exclamation point and the TAWS status shows TERR INHBT to indicate that warnings are inhibited.

Further more; HONEYWELL offers the following discretes:
Control discretes control EGPWS functions. These include EGPWS Test, Glideslope Cancel, Glideslope Inhibit or Glideslope Backcourse, Terrain (display) select, Terrain Inhibit, Flap Over-ride, Audio Inhibit, Altitude Callout Enable, Steep Approach Enable, and ILS Tuned discretes.

So it really comes down to the type of operations. If one often operates to airpots surrounded by high terrain; deactivation of the audio warnings will reduce distraction and I do understand the request. On the other hand, I completely understand the risks involved if that TERRAIN INHIBIT feature is misused.

And why did they not react? Why do some crews, even today, as shown by FDAP, not automatically react in night VMC or IMC as required?

My point was not GPWS as a distraction in the immediate case of Flying Tigers, but GPWS was fairly new and at the time and crews didn't trust it so they were conditioned to ignore alerts. In fact the crew canceled several of the alerts prior to impact. The GPWS was suppose to be the last chance to break the error chain and it did not. The design of a human interface requires deeper attention. Simply saying ignore alerts in VMC and don't in IMC is too simplistic for something warranting fuller understanding, especially when these technologies are just recently available to a wider aviation audience.

I believe a TERRAIN INHIBIT feature in most transport category aircraft, and mentioned by supik, is an important feature to have readily available with any GPWS/TAWS technology, and not deep in an interface menu.

We're not talking about airliners. We're talking about sport EAB airplanes under Part 91. Aside from the RVs I own an Aviat Husky and am partners in an new turbine SEAT fire bomber. You want to go insane hook up terrain warnings to unswitched audio. Same goes for traffic when flying formation. I see no sense in STC instructions assuming everybody is an airliner with full time aural anunciators. I say the alerting systems should follow a customized sterile cockpit rule based on the installed airplanes' mission profile. Every fire bomber I know either doesn't hook up the unswitched audio alerting or hooks it up to a switched selector on the audio panel, like com3 or ADF. STC instructions be danged.

There is an old joke where a twin landed gear up and somebody asked the seasoned pilot how it could have happened, and he responded that he was all dialed on the approach until all those flashing lights and bells made him loose his concentration. Not all pilots have the same makeup and some are more visual, some more auditory and others might need a poke in the ribs.

If someone flies their RV extensively in IMC under IFR rules then it would be advisable to have alerts available, but still at the option of the pilot. The other 90% of RV flying is VFR where unswitched audio alerts are fatiguing and can even freak out passengers on the intercom.

Jim

Jim understands what I'm saying...I spent 4 years flighting fire and the STC of tanking a 146...when the tank is armed it killed all aural alerts...gear, TCAS, GPWS, etc. The purpose was to prevent distractions but also prevent conditioning of the crew to ignoring these alerts.

I don't think anyone here is disagreeing that there should be an option of disabling alerts under certain flight conditions, as already exists on most if not all systems.

And the Flying Tiger accident is still not an example of GPWS causing or contributing to an accident. I'm unaware of any accident in any database which lists the presence of a GPWS alerting system as a contributing factor. Poor training yes. Lack of cockpit discipline yes. But not the simple fact that it was there.

My request in
 

My request in the G3X Wish List from previous year. Post nr246:

Quote:

Originally Posted by supik (Post 1298660) Optional remote TERRAIN MUTE Button/Switch to quickly mute nuisance Terrain Warnings when flying VMC in mountainous area or approach surrounded by terrain in VMC. Mute sound warning only, visual cues shall remain visible on map and synth vision. Normally, (if installed) this switch should be guarded.

Hello,

Just a reminder that there are already very quick and efficient ways to disable traffic and/or terrain alerts on a G3X Touch system if that is something you need to do on a particular flight.

Select the terrain or traffic page, press the Menu button, and enable/disable alerts for that type.

This is all explained in the Pilot Guide.

One the next power cycle, these alerts are automatically re-enabled at power-up.

Thanks,
Steve

The one I would like is a ?Trim-In-Motion? aural alert (I?m electric only trim.

I maybe can cheat a way around this by configuring Yellow+Alert a bunch of times in 1% ranges every 10%

+5 to -5 - T/O trim green
15%-16% Alert
25%-26% Alert
35-36 Alert
And so on for plus and minus.

The idea is I get a quick tone and CAS message of trim movement

Might work. Might not.

This has been a good and timely discussion as I have an independent low fuel warning system from Aircraft Extras in my RV8 that sometimes is very distracting. When I installed it I calibrated it with IFR operations in mind to alert at approximately 30 minutes fuel remaining in each tank (~4 gallons). However, I have found that due to fuel sloshing uncovering the optical sensor during turbulence or any maneuvering, the alarm will alert with as much as 8-10 gallons remaining in either tank. Trying to continually acknowledge and silence the alarm particularly during formation flying is a real pain and potentially dangerous since the acknowledge/reset button is panel mounted. What is most distracting isn't the alert lights but rather the audio alarm. I like Keith's solution (post #3) and intend to utilize an unused switch on my Infinity stick to silence all aural alarms.

I too have Garmin's G3x system in my plane and while its alert settings and sensitivity can be adjusted, having to go into a menu, find what you want and then only able to either leave the system enabled or completely inhibited while flying in my opinion is not the best solution. What's needed is a simple one touch method for simply acknowledging and silencing the alert without completely turning off the system. Voice activation would be even better.

J. Baker

I fly a G3x with that same low fuel +Alert and indeed it is very distracting. I need to change that planes config to remove the Alert part.

In my Long EZ, I had an alarm which triggered when nose gear was not down and locked and the throttle was near idle (this is per the plans). A lot of people added a aural defeat to the system so they got the alarm and then turned it off. Some of them went on to do gear up landings. When I wired the alarm, I put in a solid state time delay in series before alarm (in this case it would be right before it went into the GEA24).

I had a button on the stick which sent power to the time delay, closing which removed the power from the alarm pin and clearing the alarm. After the time expired, if the condition hadn't cleared, then the alarm came back on.

These time delays come in both hard coded and variable time setting. So for a fuel low announcement, maybe a time delay of 10 minutes or something. This would be a good feature to add to the G3X alarm system.

MTCW,

Good call. A little latching relay would do the trick also.
Once it gets the first trigger it would stay on.

+1 for just an aural inhibit

Steve,

the idea is to deactivate the nuisance terrain warnings with one touch of a button contrary to pressing buttons and selecting an option in the menu in a high workload environment when maneuvering close to obstacles or when in the approach/landing phase..

Reactivating the warnings would have the same simplicity -just push 1 button again..

Thanks,