Turbo's Blog

My $2,000 iPhone 3GS

Bob Anderson — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:14:00 GMT

My contract just expired for my two year old Sprint HTC Mogul SmartPhone. This has been a good Windows Mobile SmartPhone but time marches on. Been eyeing the new Apple iPhone 3GS so I took the bait to "try one out for 30 days".

I really like this "phone". Just the internet browser capability alone is such a jump over previous SmartPhones. At 15 days into my 30 day money back trial I realized there was a problem, I wanted to keep this "phone" but I got "no bars" in the house. To make a call I had to climb a hill up the driveway. No way was I going to be defeated. I want this phone. My old Sprint SmartPhone could handle calls in some parts of the house but I had regular dropped calls.

Next step, I go to AntennaSearch.com to find out where the cell towers are in my area. With the help of Google Earth I determine there is a cell tower farm on a hill about 3 miles west of my house beaming ATT, Sprint and Verizon. Those were the towers I picked up on my driveway. Doing some elevation shots on Google Earth it looks like I should have a signal off the top of the hill hitting my roof.

So I climb up on my roof (tile roof, this is not easy) and hold up my iPhone at the top of my roof (I wish I had a picture): Bingo, 4 bars, 3G signal. Thirty feet below this spot in the house I get "no bars" just "Searching".

Back to Google to solve this problem where I discover Cellantenna.com. After talking to Jonathan Feuer (954-340-7053 ext 206, tell him I told you to call) at CellAntenna we determined that I needed a CAE700 Building Repeater Package. But wait, I was really "lucky" because it was on sale for $1,699. So I ordered it.

The installation was pretty straight forward for anyone who can learn Perspective. Biggest challenge is the LMR400 low loss cable which is hard to hide and tuck into corners. You can order additional splitters and internal antennas to better distribute the system. I added a second internal antenna. I am also going to add a very directional "yagi" antenna on the roof to improve the signal from my nearest tower 3 miles away.

Bottom line in my office 30 feet below the roof where the signal was great I went from "no bars" to a full 4 bar 3G ATT signal. iPhone is getting about 1000 kbps down on the internet and the phone works great. In other parts of the house my internet degrades eventually falling to ATT Edge then ATT GPRS as I get farther from the internal antennas but that is for data. The "phone" works fine all over the house.

So if you have cell phone reception problems in the house but have reasonable good coverage over the house there is a solution, but it is not cheap.

But wait, there is more. I have a Sprint EVDO modem card for my PC. That EVDO card really struggled in the house. With the new repeater that Sprint EVDO is really cooking at 1300 kbps down and 500 kbps up.

Is This a Depression?

Bob Anderson — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:02:00 GMT

As you watch media coverage of this economic downturn there is a growing acceptance that this may not be a classic recession but actually fit the criteria of a depression when it is all over. I spent most of my working life in Colorado watching the economic cycles work through the state. I found watching the ski resorts really gave you a sense of conditions far better than lagging economic indicators. With this in mind we decided to make a last minute trip to Vail Lionshead to see what was going on.

We started by seeing if we could rent a condo for 4 days beginning on Christmas eve in Lionshead Village at the last minute. No problem and 25% off the published price. We planned to fly to Eagle Airport (KEGE) from Palm Springs but the winter weather over the southwest pushed us to plane B: we drove to Vail on Christmas eve. Now I was feeling that this development would ruin the whole plan. Wrong. There was no traffic the entire route. Posted speed limit was 75 most of the way but most few cars on the road were doing 85. We cruised into Vail in 13 hours from Palm Springs. There were times on I70 in Utah we did not see a car in either direction for several minutes.

When we arrived in Vail it was quiet. Parking was no problem. The best restaurants in town were wide open. We had dinner at Kelly Liken on Christmas day. This is one of the best restaurants in Lionshead. Open tables everywhere.

Skiing conditions are ideal at Vail and it is snowing hard, but the gondola had little or no line. I can see the chair lift from my condo with every other chair empty going up the mountain.

Lionshead at Vail is in the midst of a construction boom and renovation. It is spectacular to see. One of the highest end properties is the Arrabelle which is across the street from the condo we are renting. This property has recently completed with the MLS showing multiple listings of new units up to $14 million. Several other condo projects in the area by the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton with condos in the same price range that are still under construction. Wonder who is going to be buying these units now?

So it is clear that the high end destination resorts are really hurting. If you have some cash this is a great time to enjoy nice destinations for relatively cheap rates without the hassle of crowds and lines. There are some upsides of a depression.

Here is my dog sitting at the entrance to Lionshead at noon on Christmas day. Other fellow in the image is an employee. Lots of room to move around.

Garmin 696

Bob Anderson — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:37:00 GMT

Thought I would share some early observations about the new GPSMAP 696. I picked up a 696 at AOPA in SJC. I passed on the 496 so the 696 will replace my 396. So my observations of the 696 relate to comparisons with my old 396.

My initial observation is that Garmin has made an error calling this a GPSMAP 696. While they did skip "596", the new 696 is really a new device sharing only some old software code with the legacy "X96" line GPSMAP units. The new 696 is a Class 1/Class 2 EFB. The 696 really shines as a EFB. The 696 boldly displays NACO DP, STAR's, IP's, airport diagrams, enroute low and enroute high charts on its very bright 480 x 800 pixel screen. The 696 does all the aviation GPS functions like the 396. It has the extend weather options from XM. So it is a fully self contained chart viewer with all the other features found in the 396 and 496.

I have made one flight with the 696 in my Perspective. First thing that struck me was that it looks like it belongs in the Perspective. Color, buttons, look and feel is just like the Perspective installation. The form factor of the 696 makes it fit perfectly in a position on the right thigh. Garmin web site lists a new option to attach the 696 to the thigh. I flew with it sitting on the right thigh and it was perfect placement.

Positioning on the right thigh gives a view of the 696 that is closer to the eye than the Perspective full chart as depicted on the MFD. More importantly the 696 IP chart is larger in the full view mode than the MFD chart in the full view mode. The 696 is completely readable in the full chart mode. Small fonts on the Perspective MFD full chart mode is not readable. So with the 696 you can read the full chart from a bigger image which is closer to your eyes than the MFD full chart view.

Here is a side by side view of the 696 and the Perspective MFD Jepp chart in the full view mode. As you can see the NACO chart is much more readable on the 696.

Side by side you can see the relative size difference between the 396 and 696. Also note the new GXM 40 antenna is smaller and lighter than the older GXM 30 antenna.

The GPSMAP 696 passed the full sunlight test with shining colors. Here is a picture of the 696 in full sunlight at noon. Completely readable.

The 696 has a very sensitive GPS receiver. I was able to operate the unit in flight from my right thigh with full signal strength for GPS getting a good WAAS signal.

So the 696 looks like a winner. Unfortunately I bought the option on Perspective to show the Jeppesen charts. I am thinking about pulling Jeppesen off the Perspective MFD and replacing the charts on the MFD with Garmin

NACO charts. For around $800/year I can have full US NACO charts on the 696 EFB and the Perspective MFD, compared to $1,100 a year for full US Jeppesen charts only on the MFD. Combination of the 696 EFB and Perspective MFD NACO charts would give enough redundancy to finally make the move to a fully paperless cockpit. Also using the 696 EFB as a portable source of chart reference does away with any need to maintain charts on a PC using JeppView. Only "downside" is you could not print a paper copy of a chart but who needs to with the Garmin 696?

I am still learning with the 696. More later.

Never Again

Bob Anderson — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:03:00 GMT

This is a Blog previously published on FlightLevel.

There was a thread on COPA a few years ago where the new PiperJet is discussed. In that thread I expressed an opinion in opposition to the concept of single pilot, single engine turbojet operation above FL250. My concern actually is with the concept above FL300. I mentioned in that thread that I had a personal experience with this issue I thought I would share in detail with the group.

In 1973 I was a Captain in the US Air Force stationed at Edwards Air Force Base. It was a dream assignment. I was a flight surgeon assigned to the USAF Test Pilot School. Buss Aldrin was the Commandant of the School for part of my tour, so it was an unusual mix of aviators I had the pleasure to associate with. I was on flying status getting paid $150 flight pay per month, which required me to fly with the pilots assigned to the Test Pilot School. It was a hardship, but I managed to muddle through. Most of my flying was in T33’s, T38’s and F104’s at the school. On occasion I would fly with Test Pilot Students (all very accomplished pilots, most freshly back from tours in Viet Nam), but mostly I flew with Test Pilot School Instructors. I sought every opportunity to go out with the Test Pilot School instructors flying the F104. We flew the 2 seat F104D and the instructors made every flight with me an instructional session.

I was able to “negotiate” a weekend trip to Denver with a Test Pilot School instructor, Ken Dyson, in the summer of 1973. Ken Dyson went on to test pilot work in other test programs, including the F117, X31 & chief test pilot for the B2 bomber. Just by coincidence (as you will see later) I had flown with Ken before in the F104 practicing “lifting body” approaches into Edwards. These approaches ultimately became the “space shuttle” approach. The “lifting body” approach involved arriving at “high key” directly over the numbers at 25,000', then making a tear drop entry at 300 knots, engine idle and speed brakes deployed down to the runway. As I recall the rate of descent in the F104, speed brakes out and engine idle was around 11,000 fpm down (space shuttle glide is 10,000 fpm down). If the approach was shot right the F104 would arrive over the numbers at 300 knots at about 20 feet where the gear was lowered and the aircraft touched down. Typically it took around 12,000 feet (Edwards had a 15,000 foot runway) with the drag chute to slow down the F104 touching down at 300 knots. All this is background for my round trip cross country to Denver. Below is a picture of a lifting body approach to runway 04 at Ewdards that I took on another F104 mission. That is the threshold for runway 04 in the upper right hand corner of the picture. From this position the F104 touched down on the numbers barely visible in this image at 300 knots. I was riding in the back seat of an F104D flying formation with a lead F104 in the picture below.

On Friday afternoon that summer day, Ken and I suited up for our F104 flight to Denver. We were using one of the last F104’s in the Air Force inventory. It was an F104D, two place aircraft with tip tanks. This model F104 had upward ejection seats with a unique CAP’s like ballistic parachute worn by the crew members. The parachute had a small rocket motor packed in the chute located about over your spine in the packed parachute. During the ejection process, the ballistic charge propelled a slug out of the back pack thus deploying the parachute much quicker. The history of this ballistic deployed parachute was not good often imparting significant injury to ejecting F104 crew-members including broken ribs. The other unique feature of the F104 upward ejection system was that each crew-member wore "spurs" on their boots. These spurs were hooked to cables which retracted the feet into position on ejection - sometimes. Other times they just tethered you to the ejection seat. The entire system was designed to allow ejections close to the speed of sound with obvious survival tradeoffs.

Ken and I departed in the F104 in typical style out of Edwards in the restricted area, which was very nearly a vertical departure to cruise altitude in after burner. We leveled at FL410 with barely enough JP5 to make the eastbound trip to Denver non stop. In cruise flight the J79 engine was out of after burner and reasonably quiet even though in the back seat I was almost sitting on the engine in that airplane. The flight proceeded normally until just over head Aspen, Colorado. At that point a big red annunciator light illuminated. A quick scan of the engine instruments showed the oil pressure falling rapidly. Ken said over the intercom “Doc, we have a problem”. While we still had pressure Ken lit the after burner and got a few more thousand feet of altitude. When the oil pressure hit zero, Ken spooled the engine down to idle with hopes of using it again for landing. On the spool down turbine temperatures continued to drop so it appeared we lost the engine at that point.

Ken fired off an emergency to ATC, and then he calmly said over the intercom “Doc, as you can see in the checklist our decisions are limited”. The Emergency checklist had two lines for loss of engine oil pressure in the F104. “1. Oil pressure zero. 2. Eject”. So Ken said I had the choice of doing this one by the book, ie ejecting or staying with him for a try at recovery. The F104 ejection system allowed for either seat to eject independently or to have a sequenced ejection of each seat. So Ken left the decision to me, if I wanted to eject he was ok with it, but he was staying. It was at that point I recalled the history of using the F104 ejection system. So I asked Ken for the plan. He said “Easy Doc we will shoot a lifting body approach into Buckely AFB just outside of Denver”. I said ok, but Buckley only had an 11,000 foot runway and it was 6,000 above sea level. Ken said “Ya Doc, this will be a modified lifting body approach”. I told Ken I would stay with him for a while, but with my hands gripping the ejection ring, I was ready anytime to exercise my ejection option.

As the engine spooled down, the cockpit pressurization went away and the pressure demand regulator kicked in pushing oxygen at you through the tight fitting full face oxygen mask we always wore flying in fighter aircraft. Pressure breathing is not comfortable. If your mask seal is not just right oxygen blows by the mask which can be very distracting. We were at 44,000' when the engine spooled down and we lost pressurization. It is a very claustrophobic feeling as every time you breath pressure breathing oxygen is forced into your lungs under pressure. It is like breathing on a hospital respirator, but it is better than the alternative.

So there we were descending out of FL440 pressure breathing in an F104 glider. It was very quiet. ATC was giving us instructions that were impractical to comply with. We were descending so fast that Center lost us and did not give us a hand off to Denver Approach. Ken dialed up Buckley tower, declared an emergency and said we are landing from a lifting body approach. Buckley had no idea what that meant. We hit high key at FL300 over Buckley and began the approach at 300 knots and around 12,000 fpm descend rate. Ken did a relight on the engine but kept it at idle just in case. He never did use it except to taxi clear of the runway after landing. On short final we passed a flight of two T37 trainers who had been cleared to land. They were doing around 110 knots we were doing 300 knots. Ken touched it down on the numbers, popped the drag chute and crunched on the brakes. We used all 11,000’ and turned off the runway at the end with a small brake fire.

So that was my adventure with a single engine, single pilot emergency in the high flight levels. This was successful because of the skills of a very experienced test pilot who had practiced this type of approach many times. We had parachute recovery equipment as a backup. The lone pilot of a PiperJet at FL350 will have an entirely different view of the world. Most likely he will not be a test pilot, he will not be pressure breathing before the event and he will have no choice but to ride the PiperJet to the ground with an engine failure. That is why I think the concept offered by Cirrus in the-jet makes so muchsense for owner operated private jets flown single engine with a single pilot. The-jet will not fly into the higher flight levels where time of useful consciousness is measured in seconds and if the fire goes out there is CAPS.

Here is a 2 part video story about the history of the F104.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Neuroplasticity, COPA 2.0 & Perspective

Bob Anderson — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:55:00 GMT

I have been following a fascinating new field of study in the last few years, neuroplasticity. The issue has a special significance for aviation, computers and the aging brain. The issue comes into special focus around neuroplasticity and the brain-machine(computer) interface. Changes from a Cirrus 6-Pack to Avidyne PFD or Avidyne PFD to the Cirrus Perspective system really test the neuroplasticity of the brain. My guess is that the same issue is at play for the transition from COPA 1.0 to COPA 2.0 or any other brain-computer interface that requires a different process to interact with a system.

My first exposure to this issue in aviation (before it had a name) was in the late 1970's around the introduction of the first glass panel commercial aircraft, the Boeing 767. At the time I was Vice President for Medical and Safety Services at Trans World Airlines. TWA was one of the lead customers for the Boeing 767. As part of the introduction of this new airplane into the fleet the human factors issues associated with the introduction of this aircraft became a major issue. Prior to the Boeing 767/757, the typical airline cockpit consisted of "six pack" flight displays and typically 3 man cockpits. The Boeing 767 was a radical change for the cockpit. Probably the biggest change since the introduction of the gyroscope.

Since the Boeing 767 represented a "top end" aircraft for routes and destinations, the seniority system of the pilot's union basically required that only the oldest most senior pilots would be allowed to fly the new airplane. In 1980 only a few young nerds had an Apple II or a TRS80. Computers had not yet become common place outside of business and academic settings. Pretty much everything in the cockpit was analog. So about the only experience a senior airline captain had with computers was to check the reservation system or play Pacman on a lay over.

As TWA began transition training for the 767 it became very clear some of the most experienced and competent pilots could not make the transition. At first we thought it was because they were not trying, but later it became clear they just could not learn the new technology and fly the airplane safely. Ultimately these "washouts" would self select out of the 767 by rebidding the 707 or 747 with the face saving excuse that they liked the old airplanes better or like the routes these airplanes were on versus the new 767. These pilots who could not make it in the 767 seemed to be just as airworthy in the older airplanes, there was just some issue that did not allow them to learn the airplanes as judged by third parties.

Research into neuroplasticity is very early. Much of the research is centered around how plastic the brain can be handling trauma and aging. Clearly the brain does appear to have the ability to adapt to new circumstances and interface challenges. On the flip side it is very clear that some people's brains suffer a significant loss of the ability to change and adapt to new circumstances, particularly as they age. Some research suggests that the ability to keep a brain plastic as a person ages is directly related to the amount of challenge given to the brain as people age.

The area of brain-machine interfaces is most interesting to test brain plasticity. A graphic example of this issue is the absorption of computers into the daily life of older persons. How many of you have had experience with older parents or or relatives trying to gain some degree of computer literacy. In my experience some folks no matter how smart or knowledgeable cannot make the transition. All sorts of rationalizations are usually offered, some rather prophetic such as "computers are for kids". When was the last time you heard a kid say they could not master a computer? The rationalization for not making the transition are most insightful and reminiscent of my days watching airline captains struggle with transition to the glass cockpits. These "old" captains would often find something about the new glass cockpits that was not like the old "six pack" environment. They would seize on that issue as the reason they did not think this new technology was worth the trouble. The reality is that these captains could not make the transition to the new technology and simply had to find some face saving rationalization for the shortcoming.

In just five years the Cirrus cockpit has gone through a remarkable transition from "six pack", to first generation PFD's and now to an integrated FMS flat panel system. Each step requires the pilot to relearn a new brain-machine interface. Given the age demographic of pilots buying a new Cirrus these transitions may not be possible for some pilots. Ironically pilots who are challenged by the changes my be safer to stick with what they know rather than make the transition to the new advanced cockpits.

Anticipating in advance some comments, new technology always comes with bugs, changed functionality and missing functionality as it replaces older technology. Just because a user complains about those problems, it does not mean that it is a rationalization of an "non plastic brain". Some new technologies are not ready and will be rejected by plastic and non plastic brains. For those who are considering a new technology and rely on user reports it is important to understand that some folks cannot make the transition, but may try and get frustrated. Rarely will that frustration include a report that they cannot make the transition. Most often there will some kind of rationalization that the new technology is flawed, too complicated or poorly designed.

Browser Hell

Bob Anderson — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:36:00 GMT

COPA 2.0 is much more demanding of our Internet broswers than COPA 1.0. COPA 1.0 originated in the 1990's when browsers were a very simple front end to browse the internet. Things have changed today's browsers have to be equipped to handle a wide variety of internet content. COPA 2.0 uses some of the most advanced presentation tools available to display content. As a result browsers used to interact with COPA 2.0 must be up to date.

COPA members are currently using 8 browsers to interact with COPA 2.0 on Windows, Apple and Linux operating systems.

But that is jus the beginning of the problem. COPA members are using around 36 different versions of browsers to use COPA 2.0.

Here are the IE7 versions used, IE 8.0? Wonder who is using this?

There are 10 different versions of FireFox being used.

There are 10 different version of Safari being used.

And 9 different versions of Mozilla being used.

So in total when you throw in mobile phones there are in excess of 36 browser versions hitting at COPA 2.0. The reason for so many browser versions is that COPA members have not kept thier browser software up to date. Browsers change versions to add features and fix bugs. Many of these older browser version no doubt have bugs that will impact typical use of COPA 2.0.

There is absolutely no way the volunteer team for COPA 2.0 can chase down all the possible problems members may have with COPA 2.0 with such vast array of browsers hitting the web site.

So PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BROWSER TO THE MOST RECENT VERSION. SAVE YOURSELF A BUNCH OF PROBLEMS.

I am a Windows user. FireFox 3.0 is much better to view COPA 2.0 than IE7. I have found several problems using IE7 on COPA 2.0. If you are having problems with IE7 please use FireFox 3 before reporting a problem on COPA 2.0. FireFox 3.01 is current.

How to Blog

Bob Anderson — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:44:00 GMT

Blogging functionality has now been introduced in COPA 2.0. Blogging is easy, basically a one way post where visitors can comment on the content. Posting and maintaining your personal blog area is different than posting and commenting in the forums area. This How to Blog Blog is meant to provide basic information to begin blogging on COPA 2.0.

This blog is a "quick start" version of documentation to Blog. For detailed Blog documentation go here on the Community Server website.

First step to start Blogging is to get permission to Blog. Blogging rights are granted by the President of COPA, so if you want Blog contact Curt. Once you are granted Blogging permission you will be placed in one of two Blogging groups: Member Blogs and Market Place Blogs.

Once granted permission to Blog your Blog will be set up by a COPA 2.0 administrator. When your Blog is active go to Forums|Blogs. On this page select either "Member's Blogs" or "MarketPlace Blogs" depending on which group you have been assigned. On the next screen select "Blogs on this Site". Depending on which Blog group you have been enrolled you will see this screen. For purposes of this "How to" we are "test blog" as shown on the page.

Double click on your Blog (for this demo we are using "test blog") and you will see the following screen.

In the upper right hand corner, click on "Control Panel" and you will see this page.

This is your Blog Control Panel. Everything is here to write a Blog, edit a Blog and manage all the settings associated with Blogging on COPA 2.0. For this demonstration let's just "Write a blog post". For most members this will be the task most often performed in the Blog Control Panel. To "Write a blog post" hit either one of hyperlinks marked "Write a blog post". You will see this page.

This page presents the very same WYSIWYG editor you use in the Forums section to make a post. Edit your Blog just like you would a post in the Forums section. It is helpful to include "Tags" keywords for you Blog and you can upload an attachment for your Blogs. When you are finished writing your Blog hit one of the two "Save" options or hit Publish. If you hit on of the save options your Blog will be saved for future editing but Members will not be able to see it. If you want to come back and continue editing your Blog return to the "Blog Control Panel" above, this time selecting "Manage". In the "Manage" page, select "Post" then find the post you want to edit and hit the "Edit" button for that Blog post.

You will note that in the "Published" column there is an icon showing the Published status of your Blog post. If you want to Publish your Blog for members to see then click "Publish in the Blog Post Editor and your Blog will be visible on COPA 2.0.

So that's a quick tour of Blogging on COPA 2.0. We look forward to seeing member contributions of knowledge and experience in the COPA Blogs.

COPA 2.0 - Behind the Scenes

Bob Anderson — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:41:00 GMT

Browsing COPA 2.0 gives you no hint about how it really works. COPA 2.0 operating environment includes several important pieces: the application, software environment, hardware and the physical location where all this happens. Butting all the pieces together has been an interesting journey.

COPA 2.0 runs on an application called CommunityServer. CommunityServer is a platform for creating social networks. CommunityServer operates on a Microsoft.NET 2.0 platform.

The data repository for CommunityServer is Microsoft SQL Server.

COPA is running on a pair of dedicated Dell PowerEdge 1950III servers. These servers have a Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5420, 2x6MB Cache, 2.5GHz, 1333MHz processor. Each server is configured with 4GB of memory. One server runs CommunityServer application and one server runs SQL database.

The servers are located at FiberCloud in Bellingham, Washington in a Class A data center near the west coast terminus of the Canadian fiber backbone and directly on the US west coast fiber. These are fast servers hooked directly to the fiber.

Reflections on COPA 2.0

Bob Anderson — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:42:00 GMT

This is a wonderful day. With the hard work of COPA volunteers and the considerable resources from the COPA treasury, COPA 2.0 was born last night. As many of you know I have pushed for this wonderful new community tool for some time as a COPA member, including introducing some interesting ways to persuade the process along. With Curt Sanford's leadership he has made it happen.

Most of you are likely still in a state of confusion as you browse around COPA 2.0. Don't worry the fog will lift and you will discover what a wonderful tool this will be for our worldwide COPA community.

Online communities have come a long way from the days when I first started using my Apple II with a 300 baud modem to interact with the old BBS's. With the Internet in the mid 1990's, interactive forums were born including the software that supported COPA 1.0. But this is 2008 and CommunityServer 2008, the engine driving COPA 2.0, is now state of the art. COPA 2.0 is much more than a forum, it is the foundation for an integrated community. But more importantly once you get to know it the application is very user friendly. I anticipate many of our beloved "COPA Lurkers" will burst forth now with this new software and be come "bidirectional" in their user experience.

I want to thank Curt Sanford, the board of directors of COPA and all the COPA volunteers who took the risk to push the envelope on this new initiative. We have just begun to have fun.

Cirrus Perspective - Delivery and the Flight Home

Bob Anderson — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:39:00 GMT

CIRRUS PERSPECTIVE^™by Garmin

Delivery and the Flight Home

Follow the discussion on this blog here.

If you love to fly there is no bigger high than taking delivery of a new airplane. If that new airplane is a Cirrus, the experience is even more enjoyable. Since placing my order for N822TN in May I have been doing a deep dive into all of the Cirrus Perspective documentation I could find. That review is summarized here. Until I arrived in Duluth on June 17th, for my June 18th delivery I had never personally seen or flown the new Cirrus Perspective. During the 5 week period waiting for delivery I spent my time studying the Perspective Cockpit Reference Guide, the Pilot's Guide and flying the Garmin Perspective PC simulator (v9.01). That simulator is still not for sale at the Garmin store but comes with the new airplane as an inset to the paper version of the 550 page Pilot's Guide.

My delivery trip started on June 17th in San Luis Obispo. Weather the proceeding week in Duluth had not been good, so production flight tests were running behind on new airplanes. I knew from previous experience it normally took about 48 hours after the last production flight test to prepare a new Cirrus for delivery. The last production flight test in a TN22 is a one hour run up to FL250 which requires an IFR flight plan. So without calling the factory it is not hard to know whether your new TN22 has made the last production flight test by checking FlightAware. I set up my FlightAware account to send me a text message and an email alert when my new aircraft N822TN made the run to FL250. As I was loading my "trade in airplane" N922TN at 6 am on Tuesday, June 17th for the trip to Duluth I was beginning to doubt whether N822TN was going to be ready the next day.

While sitting in the run up area at KSBP, waiting for my IFR clearance my cell phone started to vibrate with a text message announcing that N822TN was starting her trip to FL250. The ceiling at KSBP was still lifting with morning fog so I waited a bit longer till I had 500' then launched for KDLH. We settled into a comfortable cruise at 17,000' and made our way to Vernal, UT for gas. Our path took us over the highest peaks in the Sierra Nevada range but at 17,000' we cleared everything fine without a bump. Plan was to get across continental divide before the normal 11am cook off of TRW's. Based on the winds I planned to go non stop from Vernal, UT to Duluth at 17,500 with about 20 knots of wind at my back the entire way. I arrived in Duluth around 4:30 CDT with 25 gallons remaining. I just love the extra fuel in the G3.

When I arrived in Duluth I found out that N822TN delivery was delayed a day but no time lost as they moved up my transition training a day so I could still depart on Friday with my new airplane.

Cirrus Perspective Introduction - A Masterful Job of Execution

I watched the introduction of the Garmin G1000 in the Columbia aircraft as they made the transition from Avidyne. It was painful. That introduction was delayed 6 months over certification challenges while inventory built at the factory leading to the "Perfect Hail Storm". Ultimately the entire effort let to the bankruptcy of the company. So as I placed my order for a Cirrus Perspective in early May expecting a June 18th delivery I was skeptical whether I would see a new airplane anywhere close to the date. The certification and production issues related to the introduction of this airplane are monumental. But here I am in Duluth on June 17th with all sorts of Cirrus people terribly embarrassed about missing my delivery date by one day. Simply amazing.

Cirrus Perspective Transition Training

I arrived in the customer lounge first thing on Wednesday morning for transition training all the time looking for a peek of my new airplane. It was carefully hidden some where while they were working on it. The customer lounge had a new feel. English is now the minority language in that lounge. Deliveries were going on for folks from all over the world.

I had done a great deal of home schooling on Cirrus Perspective before arriving in Duluth. The UND transition training course anticipates a transition pilot who has not prepared before arriving for delivery. I decided to dump the lesson plan and spent my transition day working IFR button pushing and muscle memory exercises. I flew a demo Perspective in the morning and then flew the new Frasca Perspective simulator in the afternoon. The new simulator still had some bugs as it was just installed a week before but it was a great place to work on "buttonalogy". For someone coming out of 5 years flying the Avidyne PFD/MFD your entire focus is on not allowing your right hand to reach for the PFD or MFD. I developed a training rule that only allowed my left had to be used when it was needed for touching the PFD. Only routine function there is the do the "Baro" set.

Delivery Day

My new delivery time was now 10:30 am on Thursday, June 19th. I arrived at the delivery center customer lounge early. The interaction in the delivery lounge is fascinating. Airplane transactions going on everywhere. While I was talking to a couple of new owners from Brazil they rolled in N822TN into the delivery bay below the lounge. I elected to go with the older style two to "GoldMist" two tone paint package and the Ivory interior. I operate in the southwestern United States, so a dark interior without air conditioning is not comfortable.

The inspection process went smoothly. Just a few cosmetic squawks then on to the flight test. I just let the delivery pilot fly the checklist on the acceptance flight while I fiddled with the Perspective buttons. Only squawk on the flight test was a slightly high RPM at full throttle. Turbo settings were perfect.

So we took N822TN back to the delivery center to clean up the short list of items as I prepared to return the aircraft to California the next morning. I watched the final preparation work on N822TN from the second floor customer lounge which included a significant amount of activity involving the Cirrus Perspective system. I could see the panels were both in Maintenance Mode and later the MFD panel came out and it looked like a box was exchanged then it was buttoned up. The whole process seemed odd since we did not have any problems with the Garmin equipment on the flight. I went back to the hotel as the finished up on N822TN.

Back to California

The weather could not have been better for a trip from Duluth to San Luis Obispo, California on Friday morning. Typical high plains TRW's were expected all the way to the continental divide, so I was at the airport by 6 am so I could get over the Rockies before cook off time. When I arrived at the Cirrus delivery center I found that they had placed my new airplane N822TN back to back with my old airplane N922TN. What a great picture.

I loaded up N822TN with all the stuff in N922TN then took a look at the log books since there was no one around at 6 am. I wanted to see what all the fuss was around with the Perspective system the day before. There was a simple log book entry saying that the #2 GIA63W had been exchanged with a new unit. The GIA63W is the "right brain" of the Cirrus Perspective system. It is a big box sitting behind the MFD which contains the #2 COM/NAV radios and associated logic to drive the AFCS and the panels. There are two GIA63W's in the airplane, the other unit is behind the PFD panel. So the log book entry was a clue something was wrong, but what?

Since I did not train in N822TN it only had about 5 hours total time on it as I prepared to depart Duluth. Departure from Duluth was normal climbing up to 16,500 for our flight to Rapid City, SD. TRW's were working over South Dakota, so I immediately began to build experience with the weather display capabilities of Perspective. The weather resources available on Perspective are awesome and intuitive. All the XM weather products are there. The pan and zoom capability of the Garmin 396/496 is built into Perspective so you can move forward all the way across the country and zoom into local weather details. We circumnavigated a group of large TRW's to he north and landed in Rapid City.

Abnormal Procedures Training - Part 2

Had a good turn in Rapid City, then jumped in the airplane for the second leg over to Vernal, Utah. I hit BAT1 and up popped not one but two full reversionary mode screens on the Perspective system. These screens were accompanied by a chorus of chimes alerting me to a whole series of error messages flowing out of the two alert boxes. I had no idea what was going on. I went through power cycles but no joy.

I went through an inventory of what worked. I had #1 & 2 COM, NAV and GPS. I had good AHRS and the flight director worked. I could do flight plans and direct to fine. I had full engine instrumentation. The only thing I did not have was an autopilot. Big AFCS box was lit up and the "AP" button did not work. So what should I do?

I launched for Vernal, UT hand flying the airplane. Along the way I became really familiar with all the aspects of flying the airplane in reversionary mode. It was a valuable experience. Since I had a dual reversionary mode failure everything was duplicated, including warning chimes. SVC worked fine on both panels. Except for the loss of the autopilot, it was not really any big deal.

I landed in Vernal, UT and got on the phone with Cirrus. I gave them all the alert failure messages, but it was clear whatever had happened would not be solved by talking on the phone. The folks at Cirrus continued to work the problem as a launched from Vernal for the last leg to San Luis Obispo.

The second leg in reversionary mode became more interesting. You cannot get to the fuel page in reversionary mode, so I could not add fuel at either of my stops. So while the fuel flow indications worked normally, once the "Gal Rem" wound down to "0" the "Gal Used" froze at the number current when "Gal Rem" hit zero. I discovered this about an hour after it happened over central Nevada a hundred miles from no where. I had been writing down my tank turn times so I was able to recreate the current fuel remaining with pretty good precision.

Proceeded into San Luis Obispo in the middle of a record heat wave landing on the Pacific coast at 112F. We made it home.

What's Going On?

After landing in San Luis Obispo the problem persisted on the ground. Got a message from Cirrus saying their best guess is that the "PFD Configuration Module" was bad. A new module was on the way for Saturday delivery. Saturday morning I went out to the airplane and Perspective booted up just fine. Same Sunday morning, so I decided to go fly some instrument approaches. Everything worked great. I landed and recycled the power and back we went to reversionary mode again. So now it is clear that whatever is happening is heat related. But just placing the airplane out in the sun for an hour and heating up the glareshield Perspective would boot into reversionary mode. Leave it in the hanger cold and it started fine. Once Perspective booted normally the system worked fine until the next shutdown. So whatever is happening, it is a "boot" problem.

As you can imagine there is very little experience in the field troubleshooting Perspective. So I was beginning to wonder how we were going to get this fixed. I do have an SC on the field and just by chance we have an avionics shop with G1000 experience that was just approved by Cirrus. San Luis Avionics is right next door to the Cirrus Service Center in San Luis Obispo. I met with Don Dominguez, owner of San Luis Avionics and he agreed to start troubleshooting the airplane on Wednesday morning.

A Sharp Tool in the Shed

I have spent a lot of time hanging around airports. It takes me about 30 seconds to size up an aircraft maintenance shop. As I pulled up to San Luis Avionics it was clear this was a first class shop. Neat and clean hangar, customer lounge with coffee and everything in its place. The place just looked right. Don Dominguez had read all the email traffic from Cirrus and Garmin but I could tell he was not buying some of the ideas about what was wrong.

Airplane was cold so of course it was working fine. Hard to troubleshoot something when it is not broken. So we put the airplane out on the ramp in the sun with the doors shut an let it cook for an hour. That was all that was needed, Perspective went into reversionary mode. So Don jumped into the plane and put both panels into maintenance mode where there are pages and pages of diagnostic information. Next he placeed a call to Garmin in Olathe, KS. The call was promptly answered by someone who really understood the G1000. Don spent several minutes reading off positions setting and diagnostic readings to the technician in Olathe. The technician in Olathe simpley said to Don "There is something wrong with Pin 57 on the MFD plug". Wow, I could not believe it. Don hung up the phone and undid the six screws holding the MFD and pulled out the big single plug on the MFD.

In a few seconds the plug was apart and the problem was clearly evident. The wire going into pin 57 was grounded on a crimp connector. The wire insulation had been captured into the crimp in such a way that when it heated up the ground connection was lost. Pin 57 on the Perspective MFD is the pin that when it is grounded tells Perspective that the right hand panel is an MFD. So what had been happening is that when hot, during the boot up sequence, Perspective sensed that it had 2, not 1 PFD's which was at variance with the system configuration parameters so it went into reversionary mode.

I was so impressed with the way the problem was solved. Local talent combined with an efficient and knowledgeable OEM like Garmin solved the problem. So there was no problem with the Garmin equipment, the problem was a bad wiring harness that is built by Cirrus. So back to the Cirrus delivery center on Thursday afternoon. I handed them a hot airplane which they then turned on and must have seen it boot into reversionary mode. They began troubleshooting Perspective and I would guess the system cooled enough to eliminate the problem and they thought it was fixed.

Garmin Perspective - A Professional Product

I have now had some time to poke around my new airplane and look at all the new changes. Garmin Perspective is a highly engineered professional product. Click on the images to the right. What you see are the PFD and MFD panels removed revealing the individual components of Perspective. Behind the PFD is #1 GIA63W and both AHRS. Behind the MFD is the #2 GIA63W and what I think is the engine monitoring module. Both the PFD and MFD along with associated components appear to be enclosed in a Faraday Cage. The electrical engineers will understand the significance of this feature. First class installation.

Note each cage is served by its own fan. Those fans are annunciated in case of failure in the alert boxes of Perspective.

Aft of the baggage compartment bulkhead adjacent to CAPs you will find more Perspective components. On the right side there is the transponder, XM receiver and the 406 mhz ELT. In the upper left hand corner of the picture you can see the newly relocated L3 SkyWatch box and the enlarged BAT2 below. The saddle in the middle of the picture is the attachment for the Yaw Damper, which I did not buy. Note the transponder has its own dedicated fan attached to the bulkhead in back of the transponder. Not hard to see where the extra weight with Perspective comes from. This is a very well engineered system.

No Regrets

It has been a very interesting week since taking delivery a last Thursday in Duluth. I have learned a great deal in that time. Every time I make a flight in my Perspective I learn something new. Cirrus Perspective is a professional IFR machine. Now I am going to begin training to use it in IMC conditions. As I learn more I will report on it here. But for now as an early adopter of new technology I could not be more pleased with my purchase.

Cirrus Perspective

Bob Anderson — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:27:00 GMT

CIRRUS PERSPECTIVE^™by Garmin

Follow the discussion on this blog at the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association.

See Part 2 of the Blog: Delivery and the Flight Home

Well it has finally happened, after years of speculation Cirrus has moved to a new panel option. In this post I will attempt to outline the changes in this new G3 TN22. This job is not easy since information is currently at a premium. Cirrus managed the Perspective™ program as a "black program" within the company. It is my impression information around this project has been held closer than around the jet project. So with limited materials at hand here is my understanding of the new offering. Where there are gaps in the information about the Garmin equipment I have filled in with resource material from other Garmin equipped aircraft POH's. I defer to anyone with more Garmin platform experience where I have gotten it wrong. This review is meant to be the beginning of a two way discussion.

Cirrus first shipped an Avidyne Entegra equipped airplane in February of 2003. At that time the Avidyne Entegra PFD/MFD was state of the art, but time marches on. I bought my first Cirrus in November of 2003, a Avidyne Entegra equipped SR22 Centennial. So I have had a front row seat watching the LCD display be a novelty in the Cirrus to the standard today in most new airplanes.

Cirrus has made a decision to offer an exclusive Garmin cockpit as an option for the SR22 line. They call it Cirrus Perspective™ by Garmin. Cirrus Perspective™ is really a new model SR22 with the option of a distinctive paint treatment.

Let's start with the airframe higlights. Big changes here. Cirrus Perspective™ has a new electrical system. Gone is the B&C 20 amp alternator. It has been replaced by a 70 amp belt driven alternator. The MCU has also been redesigned. When ALT1 fails now almost everything is still powered (see below). There is no bus tie like Cessna 350/400, Cirrus is still sticking with an essential bus running at a higher voltage than the main bus.

There is a new "electronic environment system" in the Cirrus Perspective™. The system has four fresh air outlets versus two in previous models of the SR22. The controls are all new. All actuators are now electronic - no more push pull cables.

The big change of course are the new Garmin panels. These panels are big, a full 1024x768 in pixel resolution. These 12" panels have 35% more screen than the old Avidyne Entegra 800x600 pixel, 10" screens. This system features two 12" panels, dual AHRS, synthetic vision, airway flight planning, GFC700 digital autopilot, full keyboard input and much more.

Cirrus Perspective™: A New Generation from Garmin

Many Cirrus owners preferred the comparatively simple, yet uncoordinated user interface offered in the Avidyne/STEC Cirrus airplanes. While most Cirrus pilots liked the previous implementations of Garmin G1000 technology, many did not like the bezel mounted sea of buttons and dials offered in the standard G1000 installations. Well Cirrus has been listening. The best way to illustrate the changes is by comparing the Perspective™ to the standard G1000 installation in the Cessna 350/400. Look very closely at the side by side images. (double click on image for bigger picture). In each case the Cessna 350/400 G1000 is on the top and the Cirrus Perspective™ is on the bottom. You can see that Cirrus Perspective™ is different from a human factors perspective. First note that the Cessna 350/400 panels while having the same pixel resolution are 10.4" diagonal versus 12" for Perspective™. More importantly, many buttons and dials have been moved off the panels down to an easy reach on the center console. Many of the MFD buttons and all intercom and autopilot functionality has been moved down to the center console.

Keyboard Differences

Because so many of the buttons have been moved from the PFD and MFD bezels on the Cirrus Perspective™ you will also notice a big difference in keyboard layouts Cessna 350/400 versus Cirrus. The biggest difference between the two keyboards are the addition of the HDG, CRS, and ALT SEL dials to the Cirrus Perspective™ keyboard. Another important difference between Perspective and the Cessna 350/400 keyboard is the location of the CLR/ENT buttons. The Garmin FMS makes you use ENT a lot – and on the older keyboard you have to move to the bottom right of the keyword to find it. Anyone who has flown Avidyne or G1000 equipped airplanes in turbulence knows how hard it is to toggle bezel mounted buttons and knobs with an out stretched arm and hand. In Cirrus Perspective™ these most frequently used controls are very close to the pilots right hand. Also as a veteran Avidyne user, I really appreciate having a separate knob for HDG, CRS, and ALT SEL. The Avidyne user interface for controlling these functions is an absolute nightmare particularly during times of heavy workload. How often have you thought you selected a new heading only to find out you selected a new altitude in an Avidyne airplane? Other keyboard functions are similar between the Cessna 350/400 G1000 and Cirrus Perspective™.

Autopilot Differences

Another big difference between the Cessna 350/400 G1000 and Cirrus Perspective™ is autopilot functionality. Both aircraft use the new Garmin GFC700 digital autopilot. This is a super autopilot. Difference between the two aircraft installations is that the Cirrus Perspective™ has a separate autopilot control head versus the MFD bezel mounted autopilot control in the Cessna 350/400 G1000. Even more important is the fact that the Cirrus Perspective™ has two AHRS, so in the event one AHRS goes down autopilot functionality is still maintained. All other G1000 single AHRS airplanes with the GFC700 will suffer the loss of both the PFD and the autopilot when the single AHRS unit (and some other hardware failures) goes down, but not the Perspective™. In the event of an AHRS 1 failure, the system will recognize the failure and change to AHRS 2 and a message will be displayed on the PFD. If AHRS 2 fails, a message will be displayed on the PFD. If the autopilot was engaged during the failure, it will remain engaged with no interruptions. Logic is also built into the system not allowing you to take off with one AHRS. But I really like the "all hell breaks loose button" aka the "Level" button that has been added to the GFC700 Cirrus Perspective™ autopilot control head. This button is a big addition to safety by acknowledging there are times when a pilot needs help fast. One push of this button and the airplane levels with altitude hold, giving the pilot some time figure out what is going on.

Cirrus Avidyne Entegra

Cirrus Perspective™ by Garmin

What's New, Interesting or Different from the View Point of an Avidyne Entegra Cirrus Pilot?

The following are my notes taken as I have read through some reference materials for the Cirrus Perspective™. Caution, this review was made by reviewing some draft documentation, there will likely be changes in some things by the time the first aircraft is delivered. These items are not listed in the order of importance, just the order I discovered them. Some of the features listed are standard for a the older G1000 based systems, but different from an Avidyne Entegra installation. I have written these notes from the view point of an experienced Cirrus Avidyne Entegra pilot considering a transition to a Cirrus Perspective™ and wanting to know what's different. To begin the review look closely at the image above. If you double click on the image you can view a large high resolution image comparing the Avidyne Entegra and Cirrus Perspective cockpits. The glareshield is more squared off in the Cirrus Perspective™ and the glove box is gone. The top of the center stack appears lower and the electronic heating controls take up much less space. The new 12" panels now sweep across most of the instrument panel.

R New Electrical System - Alternator 2 (the gear driven B&C 20 amp alternator) has been replaced with a 70 amp belt driven alternator. This alternator is located in the forward left front of the cowl and is belt driven . Electrical system has been redesigned with a new MCU and three distribution buses: Main Bus 1, Main Bus 2 and Essential Bus.

BAT2 has been increased in size from 7-amp-hour to 18-amp-hour.

There is a new circuit breaker panel with a different layout of the circuit breakers (see image above right).

ALT1, BAT1 and the starter are connected to Main Bus 1. Main Bus 2 is powered by the new ALT2. The Essential Bus is now isolated from Main Bus 1 and Main Bus 2 by two separate diodes. BAT2 is tied only to the Essential Bus. There is a third diode allowing current to flow from Main Bus 1 to Main Bus 2. So during normal operation Main Bus 2 and the Essential Bus will both be powered by ALT2 at a voltage above ALT1. If ALT1 fails three things go off line: BAT1 charging, the landing light and air conditioning. Everything else stays powered with an ALT1 failure, your only indication of an ALT1 failure will be annunciation of the event and a change in the Main Bus voltage and current. This this change together with the second AHRS unit provides a high degree of redundancy in this all electric airplane.

R Carbon Monoxide Detection System - When there are so many new features released at the same time in a new model it is easy for really important things to be left in the footnotes. I have confirmed that Cirrus Perspective™ will come with a Carbon Monoxide Detection System which will annunciate on the PFD and MFD. Don't know for sure, but it appears that the Perspective will use the CO Guardian Remote CO Detector. This unit will detect CO down to 1 ppm. It also includes altitude compensation. The unit is set up to alarm anytime CO levels reach 50 ppm for 5 minutes. Don't know what level will be annunciated as a warning in the Perspective PFD and MFD. Some G1000 installations display CO levels in ppm continuously on the MFD above a certain level based on CO Guardian web site.

R Crew Alerting System (CAS)- This is a major new advancement in the Cirrus Perspective. Cirrus brochures and associated documentation don't really talk much about this system. You really have to dig to put it all together. CAS is located in a window to the right of the altimeter and VSI display on the PFD. Aircraft annunciations are grouped by criticality and sorted by order of appearance with the most recent message on top. The color of the message text is based on its urgency and required action. Warning (RED), Caution (YELLOW), and Advisory (WHITE). In combination with the CAS Window, the system issues an audio alert when specific system conditions are met. Here are some of the CAS displays in the box on the right.

Cirrus Perspective loves to talk. Here are all of the aural warning you can get in the new airplane.

There are a several new indicators now part of the Cirrus Perspective™. Oxygen and TKS levels are now displayed on the Engine page of the MFD.

R Barometric Minimum Descent Altitude - In Perspective™ using the TMR/REF softkey and the FMS knob you can set a minimum descent altitude for approaches. You can also enter Baro minimums when you select an approach (in fact you have to at least pass over it).

R Wind Data on PFD - There are two option for wind data display, total wind and direction (like the Avidyne PFD) or headwind and crosswind components. These settings are toggled by a softkey on the PFD.

R Engine Indication System Display (MFD) - The TN22 engine indication strip on the MFD is depicted on the near right. This is the strip that displays down the left side of the MFD. Note down in the lower right hand corner, as in the Cessna 350/400, it looks like there are now two TIT indicators (one for each turbo) in the display. Owing to bigger MFD screen and higher pixel resolution of the screen the Engine Indication System Display strip is always visible on the left side of the MFD display no matter what MFD page is being displayed. Important change from my Avidyne MFD experience.

R Engine Indication System as Shown in the Reversionary Mode (on either PFD or MFD) - With the loss of one panel the Perspective™ system will go into the Reversionary Mode, either automatically or manually by the pilot. Upon entering the mode all PFD and MFD information is reformatted to fit on to which ever screen is now active. When that happens the Engine Indication Strip will change format and look like the image on the far right. These displays do not see to be user configurable.

R Engine Page on the MFD -The engine page on the Perspective™ MFD looks similar to the engine page on the Avidyne, but with much more information. Two new additions to this page for those with Avidyne experience. Now we can see both TKS and Oxygen system quantities. In Cirrus Perspective™ the information in the upper right hand corner of the MFD has been reformatted to show trip information versus communication frequencies which occupy that space in standard G1000 applications. I am advised that there will be a way to download engine data from Cirrus Perspective. Those familiar with the standard G1000 installation know there is currently no provision to allow a pilot or owner to download engine data from the G1000. I have not seen any documentation, but I am told that Cirrus Perspective™ sends data (including engine data) to the data module located in the tail. Cirrus has provided a way for an owner to down load engine data only from the data module. Initially special software in a portable PC and access to a plug in the tail will be required to get engine data. Cirrus is working on providing a plug in the center console to access engine data for download.

TN22 fuel flow annunciation has been added to the Engine Indication System Display. Look very closely at the left hand engine indication strip above. On the "FFlow GPH" indicator you will see just below the indicator "carrot" a vertical bar attached to a horizontal line. This is the computed TN22 fuel flow target to keep you LOP. TAT has amended their Supplement to eliminate the placard to "Avoid Continuous Operation between 18 & 30 GPH above 26" MAP in favor of the pilot setting fuel flow to the annunciated target on the engine strip in Cirrus Perspective airplanes.

R Transponder - Perspective uses the Garmin GTX 32 Mode A, C transponder. This transponder is mounted in the tail aft of the CAP's compartment. The transponder has a dedicated fan in the aft compartment. As with other G1000's transponder operation is done with smartkeys on the PFD. In revisionary mode the "XPDR" smartkey shows up on the MFD.

R Fans - Big change in avionics cooling in Perspective. Avionics cooling has been a lively subject on COPA over the years. We all know the avionics need cooling. The need increases in high flying airplanes as air density declines. Well Cirrus has been listening. Cirrus Perspective has four electric fans. One fan provides cooling to the Integrated Avionics units, one fan each blows on the heat sinks of the PFD and MFD and a fourth fan blows on the transponder located in the avionics bay in the empennage.

R Audio Panel - Cirrus Perspective™ includes a GMA347 audio panel mounted below the autopilot control head in the center console. The GMA347 is the newest model audio panel from Garmin and includes the "Play" feature to play back the last 10 seconds of audio feed as well as cell phone connectivity. Other G1000 applications typically mount the GMA1347 vertically between the PFD and MFD. Cirrus Perspective™ provides the same functionality at a different location.

Since this audio panel supports a cell phone input you will now find a 2.5 mm jack in the center console. This jack provides full-duplex telephone interface with intercom isolation and disable capability.

R XM Weather - Time to put the Garmin 396/496 into the back seat pocket for offline backup. All the weather offered by XM is now available on the Garmin MFD. With a fully redundant electrical system, dual AHRS and a first class implementation of XM weather on the Perspective™ MFD, my Garmin 396 will be retired from active service.

All the weather products offered by XM Weather are now available in Cirrus Perspective™. The presentation of those weather products is outstanding. As with the older G1000 installations, weather depiction can be found (depending) on weather product on both display panels. NexRad, lightning and cell movement can be depicted on a PFD inset. Cirrus Perspective™ includes Cloud Tops (IR satellite above 5,000'). There is even a page showing Cyclones.

Click here to view screen shots of all the weather pages offered by Cirrus Perspective XM weather.

R Automatic Flight Control System - This Cirrus Perspective™ is equipped with a GFC 700 - a two axis (three axis optional), fully digital, dual channel, fail passive Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS). The system consists of the GFC 705 AFCS Mode Controller, Flight Management System Keyboard, Roll Servo, Pitch Servo, Yaw Servo (optional), Integrated Avionics Units, Pitch Trim Adapter, Autopilot Disconnect Switch, Take Off / Go Around Button (see image to the right), Electric Pitch-Trim and Roll-Trim Hat Switch. The GFC 700 AFCS with optional Yaw Damper can be divided into three primary operating functions:

Flight Director - The Flight Director provides pitch and roll commands to the AFCS system and displays them on the PFD. With the Flight Director activated, the pilot can hand-fly the aircraft to follow the path shown by the command bars. Flight Director operation takes place within the #1 Integrated Avionics Unit and provides:

Mode annunciation
Vertical reference control
Pitch and roll command calculation
Pitch and roll command display

Autopilot - The Autopilot controls the aircraft pitch, roll, and if installed, yaw attitudes, while following commands received from the Flight Director. Autopilot operation occurs within the trim servos and provides:

Autopilot engagement and annunciation
Autopilot command and control
Auto-trim operation
Manual electric trim
Two axis airplane control (pitch and roll), including approaches
Level (LVL) mode engagement command of zero roll and zero vertical speed.
The IAS button selects/deselects the indicated airspeed hold mode.

Optional Yaw Damper - Yaw Damper operation is provided by the yaw servo and supplies:

Yaw Damper engagement and annunciation
Yaw axis airplane control

R Synthetic Vision - Synthetic Vision System ( SVS) functionality is offered in Perspective™ Integrated Avionics System. SVS is primarily comprised of a computer-generated forward-looking, attitude aligned view of the topography immediately in front of the aircraft from the pilot’s perspective. SVS information is shown on the primary flight display (PFD). In addition to SVS enhancement to the PFD, the following features have been added to the PFD: Pathways, Flight Path Marker, Horizon Heading Marks, Terrain and Obstacle Alerting, Three-dimensional Traffic, Airport Signs, and Runway Display.

SVS is a major advancement in IFR positional awareness. I have not flow SVS yet but after looking at the pictures, looking at the videos and talking to pilots who have flown SVS, I predict this technology will fundamentally change the relationship between a marginally current IFR pilot and their airplane. SVS not only tells where you are but presents a clear picture of where you are going and how to get there. Highway in the Sky (HITS) (depicted in the image on the right) gives you a fantastic picture of your 3 dimensional orientation but more importantly how to get on course if you are off course.

R TAWS - Perspective includes a Garmin installation of TAWS-B. There is no separate box, such as the Honeywell KGP 560 found in Avidyne equipped airplanes. Instead TAWS-B appears to be implemented in software for Garmin Perspective.

R New Seats - The seats in Cirrus Perspective have been redesigned. Not many details here is a picture.

R ChartView - Cirrus Perspective comes standard with the NACO charts. ChartView by Jeppesen is a $3,950 option in Perspective (don't get me started). With ChartView you get charts in color, but more importantly the charts are georeferenced.

R Weight (Updated 7/07/08) - Well, things were sounding too good to be true with the Cirrus Perspective. With all of the new added functionality there will be a increase in empty weight. I just picked up my Perspective. My weight and balance information is included in the table below.

In the chart you can see a comparison between an Avidyne G2 TN22, an Avidyne G3 TN22 and my Perspective G3 TN22. All three aircraft are identically equipped except for the Avidyne and Garmin differences and additional features of the Perspective. My Perspective does not have SkyWatch. Cirrus now states the optional two tone paint my add up to 10lbs to an aircraft.

As you can see, adjusting for the added ballast now included in the Perspective empty weight, the Perspective has taken some of the weight savings of the G3 and added 4 pounds over the original Avidyne G2 TN22. The good news is that after removing the ballast, the new Perspective CG is still .5" aft of the G3 TN22 without ballast. I see no reason to include ballast in the new TN22 Cirrus Perspective without air conditioning.

Service Bulletin SB 2X-95-11 "Aft Tie Down Ballast Installation" is a bulletin published in 2007 allowing the installation of ballast as an "owner option" service bulletin. I have depicted the weight differences minus ballast in these comparisons as it is now (by SB) an optional item (included on delivery but can be removed). Perspective has a more aft CG without ballast than the previous Avidyne/Garmin SR22's, so the ballast now included in Perspective is simply an owner option.

The new Perspective autopilot adds 2.3 lbs to the SR22 over the old STEC55X (see table to the right. The new Essential electrical system in Perspective adds 15 lbs to the SR22 which includes a new 70 amp alternator #2 (up from 20 amps) and a bigger 12 amp hour battery #2 (up from 7ah). Comparing all avionics components the Garmin Perspective avionics add 12.4 lbs to the SR22 over the previous Avidyne/Garmin SR22.The table to the right tabulates only those components that are different between the two aircraft.

Cirrus Perspective only uses about .53 amps more power than the current Avidyne Rev 7 SR22. The load numbers in the table to the right are given with both COM's in the transmit mode. So the new Perspective Essential Electrical system trades 15 lbs for the benefit of having everything continue to work after an ALT1 failure (except the landing light and air conditioning).

SkyWatch has been relocated from under the pilot's seat in the Avidyne G3 to the aft baggage bulk head at FS 222 in Perspective. This change helped with the CG but added weight because of the large wire harness associated with SkyWatch. More good news is the space under the front seat is freed up for storage as it was in the G1 airplanes.

Looks like the added Garmin functionality and redundancy added around 18 pounds to the Perspective (avionics and new digital autopilot). This includes added weight associated with the additional autopilot servo since there is now a new roll servo in Perspective that was absent in the Avidyne/STEC airplanes. Perspective retains the roll trim servo in the wing, but as far as I can tell it does not seem to be connected to the autopilot. It is just there for manual trim.

R Options and Pricing - Base price of the Cirrus Perspective TN22 is $590,900. Base price of the Avidyne GTS TN22 is $543,900. Avidyne GTS TN22 includes Stormscope and the Cirrus Perspective does not, so there is around a $56,000 difference between the two aircraft. Diamond is selling SVT for around $10,000. Allowing $10,000 for electrical system improvement and $10,000 for #2 AHRS, there is around $26,000 to be accounted for with all the other new features accounted for above. When you look at the new feature set detailed above it is not hard to rationalize the price difference between the Avidyne Cirrus and Cirrus Perspective. From my standpoint I think the value is there to account for the $56,000 difference between the two aircraft.

R Other Stuff - New limitation in the POH "Use of auxiliary AUDIO IN entertainment input and the optionally installed XM Radio System is prohibited during takeoff and landing.

R Resources - As of the date of this posting Cirrus Perspective™ training materials are not available. For those who what a head start learning about the Garmin technology without the Perspective™ feature set here are some important links.

Flying the G1000 IFR like the Pros! by Jeff Moss - As usual Jeff Moss shows you how to really make the boxes work.

G1000 PC Trainer 8.10 for Cessna 350/400 - Full featured G1000 simulator that works with a joy stick across two screens. Easy way to get familiar with G1000. Button placement is different than Perspective™, but basic software is very similar.

G1000 Cessna 350/400 Pilots Guide - 500+ page guide to G1000 with all the details.

GFC700 Pilot Guide for Bonanza - Good guide to understand the GFC700 autopilot.