Garmin launches electronic 'steam' instruments

For a lot of older aircraft, while a conversion to a full glass cockpit sounds appealing, it’s a huge job and expensive. You’ve also got to learn how to use it. How about a straight swap of all those ancient round mechanical gauges for modern electronic instruments?

Garmin has just announced the GI 275 electronic flight instrument that directly replaces legacy primary flight instruments in the cockpit.

The GI 275 is suitable as a direct replacement for a variety of instruments including:

• attitude indicator
• attitude directional indicator (ADI)
• course deviation indicator (CDI)
• horizontal situation indicator (HSI)
• engine indication system (EIS).

Capable of serving as a 4-in-1 flight instrument, the GI 275 can also be installed as a standby to a number of glass flight displays and is available with a 60-minute back-up battery.

It fits exactly into the common 3.125-inch flight instrument size, reducing installation time and preserving the existing aircraft panel.

The GI 275 is also compatible with a variety of third-party autopilots and does not require a separate interface adapter, further reducing installation costs.

The GI 275 has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval and is available immediately for installation in more than 1,000 single-engine and multi-engine aircraft models.

The GI 275 is also capable of displaying multifunction display-like features, such as traffic, weather, terrain, SafeTaxi airport diagrams, optional Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT) and more.

Carl Wolf, vice president of Garmin aviation sales and marketing, said, “With the GI 275, pilots can take an economical and scalable approach to their avionics upgrade, while saving on the installation labour and cost.

“The capabilities of the GI 275 are amazing – it can provide ADAHRS, autopilot interface and replace ADI, HSI, standby and EIS indicators, along with 60-minutes of battery back-up for primary or standby applications, or it can just be the coolest-ever CDI.

“If it’s round and in their panel, pilots can likely replace it with the GI 275 to receive modern flight display features and benefits in a powerful, yet compact touchscreen flight instrument.”

Garmin’s new GI 275 can be configured in a number of displays including as am Attitude Indicator with speed tape (left), atitimeter (right), heading indicator (bottom)

CDI

Engine instruments

Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI)

Multi Function Display