Hi All,

I've been lurking around these forums for a while, and thought I'd give you a couple of notes/comments on our install and what I like/don't like (or can't find the button for ;)):

First, the setup:

Cessna 441 'Conquest II'

Dual IFD 540 (Just updated to 10.1) coupled to C1000 AP (w/GPS roll seer converter)

EX600

Dual AXP 340

TAS620A

Steam Powered 6 pack

The good:

- Navigation around the unit (the UI) is, in my view the best I've seen.  It is extremely intuitive to get this up and running and is generally a pleasure to use.  With the addition of GPS roll steer, this is a fantastic suite of avionics, that has significantly improved the capability and functionality of our bird!

- Auto VLOC capture is a great feature, and as we're upgrading from a KLN94 the addition of LNAV +V RNAV approach with G'Slope advice is a great tool

- Cross Fill/Sync and Smart Fill are great additions

- Datablocks are generally great help for quick reference, whilst managing all the other bits and pieces in flight

- The dials and bezel soft keys are probably the greatest selling point over the GTN series..  The amount of times we've been flogging through some crud and have thought - thank christ for the soft key freq toggle, or the dial to alter an approach WPT, without 'henpecking' at the screen is testament to that.

The bad (or maybe, just the 'not so good'.. or even the 'operator error' section!!):

- Traffic between the EX and the IFD rarely matches.  The EX shows all paints, the IFD's rarely show them, or only show one or two... no rhyme or reason to this that I have found.

- We have the TCAS on the EX setup to 'ground' mode, but can't make it default to 'unlimited' once in the air... is not the end of the world, but is just more buttons to push!

- Cannot get the IFD's to report a VSR.. It will show a TOD marker and chime, based on our standard 1000FPM descent, but can't get the VSR datablock to indicate requirement!?!

- FPL in FMS tab only shows time at WPT/Dest in local time... really this should be in UTC, or at least toggleable.

- Under 10.1 we now have constant messaging on both IFD's to try and make us set the CRS pointer to the desired track in GPS steer mode.  Seeing as the CRS pointer has no effect on the steering of the AC, I'm not sure why this is?  Would love to disable these messages!

- Jepp charts in night mode show the Lowest Safe in a procedure in white text in the middle of a silver block... unreadable... not sure if anyone else has noticed this...

- would love to get 'X-track' able to be shown in the top header datablock again... this seems to have been removed in 10.1.

We are really happy with the equipment generally, and I certainly rate it's ease of use much higher than the GTN series - based on my limited exposure to them.  The early bugs seem to be getting knocked on the head, over time, and new/improved features are on the go.  Looking forward for to the Australian ADSB-in solution!

I'm sorry if some of the above items have been dealt with in other threads, but these are the one's I've not been able to get a resolution for elsewhere.

Cheers, Sam

With 10.1 the IFD is supposed to work with GPS height, and provide VSR. Previously it required BARO ALT. Not sure why it shouldn't be working.

Wtih 10.1.1 (a matter of weeks), you will have single line availability for the crosstrack error- yay! I really do want to see that datablock at the top of the page too.

* Orest

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, that's what I thought was the case in the new software... will have to play a bit more and see if I can get it to perform as advertised.

Good news about the X-track!

I'm hoping some of the Avidyne Guru's are going to point out my ignorance and how to resolve the rest of the issues I seem to have!

Cheers! :D

It's not a major drama, but there are situations where you might want the CDI pointing counter to your intended track.  For instance - I use it to show runway orientation after getting ATIS inbound.  I keep the HDG bug on intended track, in case of AP or NAV failure/accidental disconnect.

I'm not sure having a repeated 'heads down' msg on the 2 NAV's is a great improver of SA.  I'd personally like to be able to remove it.  Am I right that this is a new addition to 10.1?  I've only had one flight so far with the update...

Obviously CDI still indicates correct deviation in GPS mode regardless of orientation.

No, as far as I know, the unit has always produced a message when the CDI course does not match the flight plan course.

OFD wrote: a repeated 'heads down' msg on the 2 NAV's

Repeated?  Do you mean that the message keeps coming back after you cancel it?  Or do you just mean that it appears on both units one time?

If you have the CDI set to the runway heading/course, then the alert should clear itself once the flight plan aligns with the runway.

Nope, pre 10.1 upgrade we didn't receive these messages.  We need to set both CDI's to GPS track or the messages repeat on both IFDs until the course pointer is aligned with the desired flight track - the messages on the IFDs continue to pop up until this happens, regardless of being cleared.

Thanks for all the help everyone, by the way!! :D. Keep it coming!