Page 10 - TNTApril2018

G1000 NXi SurfaceWatch provides superior situational awareness on or near the airport environment, warning pilots when they are lined up with the wrong runway, as well as providing runway remaining information.
On the approach to Park Rapids, traf c is displayed on the PFD HSI inset map.
NXi In Flight
Recently, Garmin provided a demon- stration of its King Air G1000 NXi solu- tion on board their King Air 350. For this flight, we would depart New Century Air Center (KIXD) home of Garmin’s flight test facility, for Park Rapids, MN. We would shoot an approach there, land for a meeting, and then head back to New Century.
What is immediately noticeable is how fast the system boots up. Thanks to a faster, dual-core processor that boasts 16 gigabytes of memory, the system initializes in under 10 seconds. The faster processor also means the sys- tem responds immediately, renders the maps faster, and provides for smoother panning throughout all the displays. Readability is improved as well, due to new LED backlighting. The increased brightness and crispness of presenta- tions is markedly better than the prior- generation G1000. The 15-inch MFD, which is sandwiched between two 10- inch PFDs, delivers a higher-resolution, super-sharp depiction.
Dave Brown, Garmin’s manager of integrated flight deck retrofit programs, flew from the left seat, but gave me free rein to enter the flight plan and con- figure the right-side PFD to my liking. Having extensive experience behind the G1000 in a number of platforms, the familiar menu system and architectur- al logic are the same, albeit with some handy shortcuts and intuitive features.
For example,
Stream 510 allows you to pop your pre- planned flight plan and routing from your tablet to the NXi, or vice versa. You can also wirelessly transfer aviation da- tabases from the Garmin Pilot app. That alone is a tremendous time-saver.
On the taxi to Runway 18, the Garmin SafeTaxi provided guidance for the ground operations portion of our flight. Using georeferenced charts, it will display runways, taxiways, build- ings, hangars and even the names of FBOs. While all of this is useful for situ- ational awareness, SurfaceWatch is the real safety game-changer. Originally found on the G3000 and G5000 avionics suites, the monitoring technology is a great tool for preventing runway incu- sions, or to warn you that are lined up with a taxiway or the wrong runway.
Since we had added the departure runway to our flight plan, SurfaceWatch ensured we lined up with the correct runway and that we had enough pave- ment for our particular performance profile. If any of these things didn’t check out, the system would have
alerted us with aural and a message on the display. It can also keep tabs on ADS-B traffic. During the takeoff roll, SurfaceWatch reported runway remain- ing during this critical phase of flight. You can easily imagine how useful this would be in a short-runway scenario or takeoff abort.
Once we were settled into our cruise climb, I began to explore some of the nifty features of the NXi. One the first things Dave showed me was the ability to customize the map presentation inset within the PFD HSI. In addition to map features, I could overlay traffic, FIS-B weather, terrain, Sirius XM weather or radar. Depending on the phase of flight and conditions, the pilot can easily add and subtract features that have the most relevance.
Moving to the MFD, we took a look at the radar overlay on the moving map (although there wasn’t anything to see on this severe-clear day). One option is the addition of Garmin’s GWX70 radar, which features ground clutter suppres- sion and turbulence detection. We also viewed the system’s ability to display the moving map on a VFR or IFR map. The NXi-redesigned joystick made navi- gating the map features much easier than the old up-down, left-right cur- sor movement. We then selected the Vertical Situation Display that incorpo- rates a terrain profile view, taking into consideration the active flight plan, altitude constraints and winds aloft. It presents a profile view of your flight, allowing you to plan ahead and make adjustments as necessary.
Fully Automated Approach
As we started our descent to Park Rapids, we loaded in the RNAV 13 approach with the plan to fly the course reversal. We pulled up the approach plate on the MFD and entered in the minimums data. Even without vertical
the optional
Flight
8 • TWIN & TURBINE
A new NXi feature, the comm frequency boxes provide identi cation so that you con rm what navaid or comm frequency you are currently using.
April 2018
DIANNE WHITE PHOTO