I flew the Avidyne 440's for the first time a couple days ago. My first impressions are very positive!

Things I like: The install is simple. Configuring the units is easy and intuitive. I did have to call avidyne and they were helpful and knowledgeable. The geo-fill for frequencies is awesome! I like the intuitiveness of the units. The displays are bright and easily readable in direct sunlight. The synthetic vision is cool, though I'm not sure how much I will use it. The traffic in SV is really cool and makes it easy to spot targets because it's in 3d. Entering an IFR plan is as easy as it can get; basically you put in your beginning and ending point and it will geo-fill everything else and you adjust from there. literally takes a minute. Messages pop up and then go away - You don't have to clear them. I fly under bravo and the units give you a spatial orientation to remain clear (I'm always dialed into the charts to remain clear and these make that easier). Terrain is always depicted in light yellow and red rather than the pop-ups you get with Garmin. Overall, you don't have to clear pop-ups, you can see them graphically and there's no more button punching to clear them. The IFD100 app is an extension of the units and makes flight planning that much easier. In flight, IFD100 is communicating all functions of the unit: SV, the flight plan, weather, traffic, frequencies, obstacles, everything. It makes not having a bigger screen on the panel no big deal. I like that you can use the buttons for all functions of the unit or you can use the touch screen (I fly in the bumps and my iPad and 796 give me fits).

Things I don't like: These are really just my little bitchings... It takes the units a while to pick up satellites. Probably a minute or two longer than the 430's. The units didn't come with the latest databases, although they sent them to me. I Don't like to have to agree to all the legal crap when they boot up. Good lord, just turn on and quit asking me to agree to the terms of use!

I'm pretty sure the Garmin 650's do about the same as these. But when you look at the cost to upgrade, the garmins would have been 10K more for the units and would require all new wiring (probably another 10K).

Overall, I'm totally happy with them and would highly recommend them!

Jim

For any of you that might be interested in an IFD 440 install. I learned the hard way that you really need to use crossynch on the units. The radios are so powerful they bleed into one another and cause all kinds of interference when you are monitoring other comms.

Here is the wiring to accomplish that:



Here is an example of what I am talking about:



As you can see, when I'm transmitting while monitoring com 2, com 2 starts receiving and everything goes inaudible. It's a simple fix only requiring two wires and turning crossynch on in both units. It took about an hour is all.


Just an FYI for this interested.

jaudette wrote:For any of you that might be interested in an IFD 440 install. I learned the hard way that you really need to use crossynch on the units. The radios are so powerful they bleed into one another and cause all kinds of interference when you are monitoring other comms.

Here is the wiring to accomplish that:



Here is an example of what I am talking about:



As you can see, when I'm transmitting while monitoring com 2, com 2 starts receiving and everything goes inaudible. It's a simple fix only requiring two wires and turning crossynch on in both units. It took about an hour is all.


Just an FYI for this interested.

Were you able to interface the dual G5's to the IFD440's? Does the HSI display all the info from the 440's? I have been doing some reading on these and I have not heard that the combo interfaces well...

Thanks in advance

Just saw this thread. Seriously impressive work! I love the CF on the panel!