I'm deep in the re-panel for my C180 and am continuously impressed with all the capabilities Garmin affords. Might be a bit much for the old girl, but I'm keen on taking advantage of all the wiz-bang.

After watching the video I'm really impressed by the nearly perfect integration of airplane systems and navigational information including ATC data (frequencies, xp-codes,...) to provide procedures to manage an emergency.
A successful application of smart glide, however, relies at least as much on data the pilot has to provide. Best glide speed, glide ratio in different configurations are among the first to come to mind.
In the backcountrypilot-world where many fly modified birds these data are not always easy to come by.
What are the relevant numbers for a 170B with a Sportsman cuff, for a 180 with Wing-X?
So maybe a few test-flights are in order to get the best out of smart glide.

What I found strange is that there's no mention of taking winds aloft into account when determining gliding distance. Or did I miss something?

I'm looking at all this through the glasses of a soaring pilot who calculates final glides at the end of each and every cross country flight.
With the performance of state of the art sailplanes even small errors in crucial data provided could make the difference between landing back home or hitting a farmers field a couple of miles short.
That's not an issue with smart glide as the safety margins built in have to be much larger, but I for one would feel more confident knowing that in a pinch I could count on a 12:1 glide ratio at 70mph in my Sportsman-170 wing.

140eagles wrote:...A successful application of smart glide, however, relies at least as much on data the pilot has to provide. Best glide speed, glide ratio in different configurations are among the first to come to mind...

Great thoughts Wolf.

Of course this plays out perfect on paper, but the system actually DOESNT need any info from the pilot. The V speeds are set on installation, so the box will already know this data. We don't have to worry about best glide in different configurations as it is one number. In our birds, we have clean flaps and pitch for Vg. That's it... We're either gonna make it or we ain't. And we know these numbers... We know Vg on the stock wing, and we know with the modded wing (sportsman as well as WingX.)

Winds aloft will change with altitude and environment... but keep in mind that the magic boxes have sensors and probes and are chewing the data many times a second to know what the current winds aloft are in real time. This all goes into the calculations.

Of course none of us want to relinquish our destiny to a box. I get it... All I can say is that every time I think I can outsmart Mrs. Waze, I find myself eating crow. LOL.

I'll do a bunch of testing when/if I ever get the bird back up in the sky and see how the trick pony rides.

I’m curious, someone can tell me what Vg is on my ‘53 with sportsman, 29’s, and a Mac 401?

So this would be doing the same thing as using the older APs that had IAS or FLC mode, where you’d have a failure pitch for best glide hit IAS, twist enter enter and nav to the nearest field?

Just with the glide mode it’s a extra button that puts the plane into IAS mode at the glide speed programmed in at install vs you having to pitch for it and hit IAS?

StillLearning wrote:I’m curious, someone can tell me what Vg is on my ‘53 with sportsman, 29’s, and a Mac 401?

Gotta go up and make the data


http://sonex604.com/flight_testing2.html

That’s my point, essentially every plane is different.

Smartglide calculates your glide distance and closest acceptable airport including the wind calculation. On the 650 or 750 it shows that distance with a green circle including the wind variable. When activated it holds the aircraft at the best glide speed and navigates it to the nearest acceptable airport including obstacles.

wfd wrote:Smartglide calculates your glide distance and closest acceptable airport including the wind calculation. On the 650 or 750 it shows that distance with a green circle including the wind variable. When activated it holds the aircraft at the best glide speed and navigates it to the nearest acceptable airport including obstacles.

For a inexperienced pilot, or poor viz operations, that’s pretty cool

So smart glide is basically just a different AP head that gets it’s data from all the other garmin goodies, runs calculations, and auto sets IAS mode & Nav mode?

If that’s the case and the price point isn’t crazy, seems a good choice if you’re putting a new AP head in and if you have other equipment that can talk to the garmin AP

NineThreeKilo wrote:...basically just a different AP head...?

Im assuming you didnt watch the video?

Its just a feature within the GTNs. The more "stuff" you have the more the feature does.