Avidyne EXP5000 Glass Cockpit
 

I was out for a check flight this morning and thought it would be a good opportunity to take out one of the recent additions to the Schofields fleet, Piper Warrior III PA-28-161 (2842268) VH-ZFY, one of two identical Avidyne EXP5000 equipped aircraft.

After reviewing the Avidyne manuals in the club house, and having a run through in the aircraft, we headed out to the Training Area for some steep turns and stalls, while working through the functionality of the Avidyne setup.

The basic operation of the PFD and MFD is really quite straight forward, using the navigation features fed by the dual Garmin 430 GPS is where you need to invest some time to take advantage of what the Avidyne has to offer.

It takes a little bit of time to become familiar with the layout of all the data displayed (and there is plenty), however it was only the analogue Air Speed Indicator that I tended to look back at (just habit), not bothering with the Analogue Altimeter and Attitude Indicator at all. These guages are retained in case of electrical failure, the backup battery only lasting 20-30 minutes.


Interesting Points:

• A fuel pressure guage is not include, replaced by a fuel flow indicator.
• The Slip/Silde indicator is a little small, just a small black bottom section of a triangle below the Bank Angle Indicator.
• There is a guage for Manifold Pressure instead of Vacuum.
• Before adjusting any of the "Bugs" like Heading, Altitude and VSI, you need to make sure you press the select button alongside the indicator (Heading Bug is the default).
• Bright sun can make the screens difficult to see (depending on the angle), however the brightness control handles this quite well.

The MFD has a number of different displays including Engine Instruments (vey clear), Map (airspace), Nearby Airports and Nav Aids. The map display is very good, however it takes up all the display, with only a small summary of some instruments (might have been better to have a split display with engine instruments and map).

Returning to Bankstown via 2RN, I requested 3 circuits, however the training curcuit was full, and ATC offered one on right side. Thanks to ATC and the traffic, we ended up with three circuits off 29R and then taxied back to Schofields.

Overall, I was very impressed with the aircraft and the Avidyne setup, and it was a nice change to be in a six year old aircraft, rather than a 15-25 year old one.

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VH-ZFY and VH-ZFX are the two recent additions to the Schofields Flying Club fleet, and both aircraft have the new "Glass" Avidyne
EXP5000 cockpit panel.


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The Primary Function Display (PFD) on the left, has all the primary instruments in the top half of the screen, and navigation instruments
on the bottom, feed by the twin Garmin 430 GPS. The Multifunction Display (MFD) on the right can display engine instruments and fuel
as seen here, or four other displays, from Airspace to nearby Airports and Navigation Aid data. The dual Garmin 430 GPS are between
the PFD and MFD, and below the communications panel. On the far left there is a traditional analogue Airspeed Indicator, Attitude
Indicator and Altimeter, in case of electrical failure, and when the 30min backup battery runs out.


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The MFD in this shot is set to the map (Airspace) display, which shows all the boundaries between controlled and uncontrolled airspace.

Grahame.

The majority of my hours for my licenses were had on aircraft with the Avidyne EXP5000, and it is indeed a fantastic system to learn off, particularly in company with the two Garmin 430s and especially when I was doing my instrument rating.

Thanks for sharing your review and perspective of this system!