Prime time

Frankly, everything looked and smelled normal to me but pointing that out would have missed the purpose of this exercise. Instead of an actual corporate jet, Hewes and I were sitting side by side in a flight simulator at Garmin headquarters in Olathe, Kansas, and this was my chance to try out the new Garmin G3000 Prime avionics suite’s “Emergency Return” feature. Simply pressing the “Activate Emergency Return” icon on the touchscreen panel in front of me engaged the pre-loaded RNAV approach to Runway 5 at Morristown—and the autopilot dutifully directed us to fly that IFR procedure.

The G3000 Prime further reduces pilot workload by remembering the aircraft’s takeoff weight and automatically calculating its approach and reference speeds without any crew action. All we had to do was declare an emergency, direct the jet to intercept the final approach course, and follow the vertical guidance to the pavement. The process is remarkably quick and easy.

“There’s way less head’s down time and button pushing during a critical and stressful phase of flight,” Hewes said. “Pilots in the real world have developed their own workarounds in case they need to get the airplane back on the ground quickly—but Emergency Return greatly simplifies the process and makes it a central part of every pre-takeoff briefing.”

G3000 Prime is the Kansas company’s third generation integrated avionics suite. Its predecessor, the G3000, has become a mainstay of corporate jets since its introduction in 2009, and it likely contributes to the premium prices the Cessna Citation CJ3+ commands over otherwise identical CJ3s in both the new and used aircraft markets.

Getting comfortable with the new touchscreen system will take time and practice, even for experienced G3000 users.

For starters, the familiar home screen, a staple of every Garmin touchscreen GPS and the Garmin Pilot app, is totally gone with Prime. There are no soft keys below the displays. And the primary and multifunction displays are meant to be touched. That includes pinch-zooming, and crews can do that on multiple screens simultaneously.

Click images to enlarge and view captions.

Another big difference is that the two touchscreen controllers that were dedicated to data entry in the G3000 have become “secondary display units” in Prime. These display units were mostly used, as their predecessors were, for data entry, but they have additional real estate that allows them to be used for other purposes. Thankfully, the ubiquitous dual concentric knob for entering radio frequencies is still present in Prime, and the autopilot controller is unchanged from the G3000. Pilots accustomed to the G3000 are sure to find that comforting.

Hewes said Garmin did away with the home screen because Prime’s shallow menu structure made it obsolete. “You used to have to go back to the home screen to accomplish just about any new task,” he said. “That’s simply not necessary anymore. You can go straight to it.”

Garmin’s third generation flight deck, with completely new hardware and software, has twice the processing power and four times the memory of G3000 and that makes the refresh rate on the 14-inch primary and multifunction screens incredibly rapid.

Garmin’s third generation flight deck has twice the processing power and four times the memory of G3000 and that makes the refresh rate on the 14-inch primary and multifunction screens incredibly rapid.The engine information system still resides on the left side of the multifunction display, and it provides more graphical information including landing gear and flap position. Delving more deeply into any of the subsystems starts with simply touching them on the EIS display.

On the ground, Prime allows pilots to enter their taxi instructions, then follow the magenta arrows to the assigned runway while the system provides an overhead view for situational awareness. Before landing, entering the airplane’s weight, configuration, and runway condition provides a graphical display of the landing runway including the adjoining taxiways where the pilot should expect to exit.

My one-hour sim session with Hewes began with some bewilderment from me. Once Hewes walked me through the process, however, it started to make sense. By the time I’d built, modified, and executed four or five flight plans, the logic of the new system started to take hold. Like many aspects of aviation, learning takes repetition, and that’s especially true with avionics.

Designers love to describe each new system as more “intuitive” than the last. But using these tools is a learned behavior, and although one system bears certain similarities to its predecessors, there are real and important differences that can easily trip up pilots who are new to them. Don’t assume, as I did, that being a G3000 ace will make you a whiz at Prime. You’ll learn the new system—and you’ll probably like it better than its predecessor once you get to know it. But treat it like the new system it is, and remember how long it took to master G3000 when you were new to it. G3000 Prime is likely to feel like déjà vu all over again.

Garmin hasn’t said what airplanes are going to get Prime first, but the systems are likely to enter the turbine fleet via new aircraft delivered from manufacturers, and that’s a relatively slow and deliberate process. Prime will be sold via new aircraft manufacturers first, and Garmin is leaving it up to them to announce which models are getting them and how much those new airplanes will cost.

The company did reveal, however, that Prime has logged many hundreds of flight hours in real airplanes, and that it’s received FAA technical standard order certification. Standby to see which manufacturers get it first, and whether it goes into a jet, a turboprop, or an advanced air mobility vehicle first.

Judging from the wide and enthusiastic adoption of G3000, it could be any or all of them. [email protected]