New MGL XTreme EFIS is shipping !

[777drvr]

I sure am looking forward to receiving mine . I ordered from Aircraft Spruce and it's been BO'd for a while....
Marc

[Rainier Lamers]

Hi Gasman,
glad you like your unit about as much as we like developing it.
If you have a look at our other EFIS systems and how these developed from humble beginnings you can be sure that the XTreme will have a long upgrade future. It just would not be MGL if this would not be so...
We are hard at work with the first major update which brings Navidata compatibility and all the GPS navigation goodies into the system (including Jeppesen Navdata compatibility).
Autopilot is next, then some form of moving map snd it looks like this is by no means the end, allready the ideas, requests (and demands) are rolling in.

Keep a beady eye on your unit - they are getting very precious. We don't have a chance in h... to produce enough to fill demand at the moment due to World wide component shortages (caused by the recession and closed chip production lines).

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

Originally Posted by gasman

My first flight with the basic unit..... meaning power, oat, pitot and static. I tested the ias with a digital manometer, it was right on throughout the entire scale.

During the test flight, (about 30 minutes before sun set) I set my flight path away from the setting sun so it would hit direct on the panel. I had no problem reading the XTreme.

The unit in it's basic form preformed well. The screen is a perfect size. And is easy to read. Flight with the GPS horizon indicator is amazing! And the standard rate turn indicator is right there also.

Out of the box, the horizon line was dead nuts in the center of the do-nut. And just flying along trying to fool this unit is a waste of time. It is right there with you! The slightest change from level and it shows on the horizon.

This is a great VFR tool.............. It is far better than nothing if outside went white.

As you can tell, I love my XTreme. For the money, there is nothing out there to compare this to. Plus, you can build it as you go, or your needs change.

One thing that I don't understand........ is why we didn't get GPS compass track in place of the compass option??? Maybe that will come in the first upgrade.

Great unit. Just what I was looking for. Easy to use without the manual. And the SD card really tops it off. It will record all flight and engine info every second for up to 5 hours.......... and then you just remove the SD card and take it home and stick it into your computer.. That's really neat....

So, when is the next upgrade?

[777drvr]

Rainier , you have me scared ! Do you know if any are being delivered to Aircraft Spruce ?

Marc

[rjtjrt]

Ranier
If I can put my 2 cents in, as I would use the extreme as a backup attitude display, I would like it to have a page that is an HSI with heading bug, pointer to VOR or NDB (selectable) and if possible moving map in background with HSI superimposed.
I could leave it in HSI page for most of the time but have a quick select button to return it to attitude if I need to see the backup attitude in IFR.
This would make it ideal for us outside US who still need ADF/NDB for alternate nomination and thus have to stay current in NDB approaches.
John

[Rainier Lamers]

Originally Posted by 777drvr

Rainier , you have me scared ! Do you know if any are being delivered to Aircraft Spruce ?

Marc

Yes units are being delivered to Aircraft Spruce and to all of our other distributors but there are delays and effectively limited supplies. A distributor may order 100 units but he is likely to get only 20 in a resonable time with the remainder trickling in later as supply allows.

Our normal order lead times (for our other EFIS systems) from the factory tend to be around 2-3 months due to high demand and the XTreme is now a little worse than that. Oddly in case of the XTreme this has nothing to do with us or our production facilities but is due to difficult component supply.

We are finding ourselves in the bad situation where many critical components such as processors and memory chips have to be ordered as much as a year in advance - and even then there are no guarantees.
Can you imagine how difficult that is ? How do we know what we need in a years time ? We can only guess and have to guess on the low side - these things are expensive.

Sometimes we can get things faster - via buying houses that speculate with components much like a stock exchange. They buy when they are cheap and if they think there will be a shortage and then supply at inflated prices.
To quote a real example:
Our EFIS systems use an Atmel DataFlash chip as boot loader storage. It's a cheap everyday chip you would not even think twice about.
Normal price around one Dollar. Current price due to shortage: In the region of $150, if you can find them. Due to panic buying from manufacturers that use these chips (including us) the shelves are bare...

I suppose I should not complain about this - after all, this is one of the many facets of my job that makes life interesting...

Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics

[Rainier Lamers]

Originally Posted by rjtjrt

Ranier
If I can put my 2 cents in, as I would use the extreme as a backup attitude display, I would like it to have a page that is an HSI with heading bug, pointer to VOR or NDB (selectable) and if possible moving map in background with HSI superimposed.
I could leave it in HSI page for most of the time but have a quick select button to return it to attitude if I need to see the backup attitude in IFR.
This would make it ideal for us outside US who still need ADF/NDB for alternate nomination and thus have to stay current in NDB approaches.
John

Be assured,
we are watching every comment (like yours) and are combining this with our own ideas. We fly ourselves so we have a fair idea what we want from this unit.
It will never be as hugely comprehensive as our other EFIS systems due to limited resources in the system and relatively small screen size (that alone limits things), but the HSI (not yet released) looks very nice and is XTremely usable.

One of our goals for the XTreme is to keep it simple to setup and operate, up to this point I think we did a good job with that. We have to be careful not to make it too complicated.

Rainier

[TS Flightlines]

I dont know anything about this stuff---but it looks simple enough that even I could use it!!!!
Tom

[gasman]

Originally Posted by gasman

My first flight with the basic unit..... meaning power, oat, pitot and static. I tested the ias with a digital manometer, it was right on throughout the entire scale.

During the test flight, (about 30 minutes before sun set) I set my flight path away from the setting sun so it would hit direct on the panel. I had no problem reading the XTreme.

The unit in it's basic form preformed well. The screen is a perfect size. And is easy to read. Flight with the GPS horizon indicator is amazing! And the standard rate turn indicator is right there also.

Out of the box, the horizon line was dead nuts in the center of the do-nut. And just flying along trying to fool this unit is a waste of time. It is right there with you! The slightest change from level and it shows on the horizon.

This is a great VFR tool.............. It is far better than nothing if outside went white.

As you can tell, I love my XTreme. For the money, there is nothing out there to compare this to. Plus, you can build it as you go, or your needs change.

One thing that I don't understand........ is why we didn't get GPS compass track in place of the compass option??? Maybe that will come in the first upgrade.

Great unit. Just what I was looking for. Easy to use without the manual. And the SD card really tops it off. It will record all flight and engine info every second for up to 5 hours.......... and then you just remove the SD card and take it home and stick it into your computer.. That's really neat....

So, when is the next upgrade?

During my evening flight today, I was turning and pushing the knob (love the way it works) and I pressed on screen brightness......... WOW!! it was only set on 50%.

YES, YOU CAN read this screen in direct sunlight.

[rpellicciotti]

Originally Posted by Rainier Lamers

Be assured,
we are watching every comment (like yours) and are combining this with our own ideas. We fly ourselves so we have a fair idea what we want from this unit.
It will never be as hugely comprehensive as our other EFIS systems due to limited resources in the system and relatively small screen size (that alone limits things), but the HSI (not yet released) looks very nice and is XTremely usable.

One of our goals for the XTreme is to keep it simple to setup and operate, up to this point I think we did a good job with that. We have to be careful not to make it too complicated.

Rainier

The only thing keeping me from ordering one of these is the lack of a HSI display that works with my GNS430. Glad to hear one is in the works.

[Alan Carroll]

Originally Posted by gasman

Out of the box, the horizon line was dead nuts in the center of the do-nut. And just flying along trying to fool this unit is a waste of time. It is right there with you! The slightest change from level and it shows on the horizon.

This is a great VFR tool.............. It is far better than nothing if outside went white.

Just curious, why VFR and not IFR? (my understanding is you can hook the Xtreme up to the same AHRS options as its larger cousins)