Long-winded post....
w1curtis said:
What was the title of this thread again?
When did the discussion of GRT News become "what's wrong with Garmin's new products and why Chelton is so much better?"
Sorry if that's how my comments came across - that wasn't my intent. I can't speak for others.
IMHO, Garmin's new products are good. There has been a lot of clamoring for a highly integrated system like the G1000 for homebuilts, and here we have the G900X. The G600 looks to be a
great retrofit system for existing certified airplanes as well as an option for new expreimentals. As far as I know, the next lowest price certified MFD/PFD system is the Avidyne, and that's over $50k.
However, all products are different, and it's the differences that are interesting, at least to me. Everyone will look at user interface, price, performance, features and reliability differently and will have different criteria.
The price for the new Garmin systems seem to be higher than other experimental systems in terms of what it delivers. A 3-screen GRT system with XM WX, dual AHRS and dual external IFR-certified approach GPS (such as the G430) should cost less than the G600 PFD/MFD alone.
Chelton is interesting to me because of how they approach the user interface. The combination of synthetic vision and HITS on the PFD along with the FMS might be better for IFR flight - there is some research that suggests this. However, it is not without problems - smaller screens, unproven ADHRS, higher cost than its GRT / BMA competitors. However, I think that the user interface is
very important (recall the Air Inter A320 crash, where the flight crew selected a 3,300 fpm decent rather than a 3.3 deg slope decent - there is only one small indication on the autopilot display and PFD to differentiate between the "vertical speed" and "flight path angle" modes - see
the MIT aerospace lab's excellent experiment on this design problem).
GRT's recent announcements shows that their product continues to evolve at a steady pace. IMHO, they have the best product in the $10k-15k range.
So, no one system is perfect, and everyone will have different things that matter most to them. Competition and choice is good.