Garmin revealed that it has developed a new touchscreen control system—the GTC 580—designed for use with its G2000, G3000, and G5000 avionics suites, and the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet single-engine turbofan will be its launch customer. The GTC 580s are successors to the GTC 570 controllers.
The new GTC 580 controllers provide a control interface with the flight deck’s primary and multifunction displays, and include their own stand-alone attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS) and air data sensors. Going forward, this feature could provide an extra measure of redundancy for airplanes that currently are equipped with Garmin’s GTC 570, like the Cessna TTx piston single, and the Citation M2, CJ3+, Sovereign+, Latitude, and X+; Embraer’s Phenom 300; Honda’s HondaJet; and the Lear 70/75 series.
The GTC 580 includes a standby attitude indicator, and the unit compares its data inputs with those from the primary AHRS information coming from the flight deck’s integrated PFD and MFD. Any discrepancies are annunciated, and then pilots can manually choose the standby source in the event of a failure of the primary AHRS source(s). Should a PFD fail, the GTC 580 automatically reverts to its standby flight display view.
Moving map, datalink weather, flight plan, navcom, and transponder codes can all be entered using the GTC 580. Up to four GTC 580s can be installed per airplane, and each controller can support any mode selection, including the standby attitude indicator.
The new controllers are not retrofittable, Garmin said, and the company expects other original equipment manufacturers to adopt Cirrus’ example in the near future.
