Penn Avionics was pleased to receive our first EFD1000 system for the AOPA sweepstakes aircraft. The EFD1000 should be an outstanding product available at an extremely reasonable price. The EFD1000 has a built in GPSS converter along with an emergency standby battery to power the unit in the event of an aircraft electrical system failure. If you compare the cost of a standby attitude gyro with battery and external GPSS converter, you have almost purchased the EFD1000 on those two features alone.

We have received many customer inquiries on this system and the following is a short FAQ that we will continue to expand on.

3/12/2008:

Penn Avionics and Aspen Avionics will be conducting a user seminar on June 17, 2008 at 6:30 PM. Aspen Demo units will be available and Peter Difanti from Aspen will conduct an informational presentation on the EFD1000. Refreshments will be available.  The seminar will be held at the Brandywine airport (KOQN) at the American Helicopter Museum located on the North side of the field. The Museum is accessible for both fly-in and drive in customers. http://www.helicoptermuseum.org/

3/14/2008:

Aspen Receives FAA TSO. Aspen expects to have the EFD1000 STC and AML completed by March 31st, 2008 and to begin shipments at that time.

4/1/2008:

Aspen receives STC and AML approval. EFD1000 customer shipments have begun.

4/2/2008:

Penn Avionics, Inc completes 1st revision of AOPA sweepstakes Archer which includes the Aspen EFD1000 pro. The AOPA archer will be down at Sun&Fun on display, then returning to Penn Avionics for a new one piece metal panel.

Ken and I had a chance to run the EFD1000 pro through it's paces in flight this week. I have to say, that the EFD1000 is everything Aspen said it would be. From start-up, the Aspen EFD1000 was up and running in about the same time it took the GNS-530W to go though it's self test. The knobs and controls on the EFD1000 were intuitive and worked well. In flight the display was bright and clear. There were no viewing angle issues, Ken could read the display from the right seat. The Horizon, HSI, Airspeed, Alt and VSI tapes all operated as advertised without any issues. We believe this truly will be a revolutionary product for the GA owner, and look forward to spending more time behind the EFD1000.

EFD1000 Pro FAQ:

Aspen EFD1000 on left, Magnetometer top center, configuration module bottom center, (ACU) Analog interface unit on right.

Aspen EFD1000 compared to older vacuum gyros.

EFD1000 FAQ:

What aircraft will the EFD1000 be certified in?

Initially the EFD1000 will be certified in aircraft 6000lbs and less. The STC approved model list should cover most popular general aviation aircraft (no helicopters at this time). In our opinion, it would be very difficult to obtain a field approval to install the EFD1000 into an aircraft not listed on the Aspen STC approved model list.

What instruments can I remove to make room for the EFD1000 (and still be legal for IFR)?

This will vary by aircraft, but in general an existing DG and/or VSI can be removed. The turn coordinator gyro can also be removed if the autopilot in not interfaced to it.

STEC autopilots, Cessna 200 and 300 autopilots, and King KAP140 autopilots are interfaced to the turn coordinator and therefore it cannot be removed. In these cases the turn coordinator could be relocated to the co-pilot side or "blind" mounted if necessary.

What back-up instruments are required with an EFD1000 installation?

FAR 23.1311 (a)(5) requires that independent secondary instruments be installed for Attitude, Airspeed, Magnetic direction indicator (whisky compass is OK). These must be within the pilots center field of view (see fig 5.2 below). In most cases the existing instruments can be re-located to meet this requirement.

The backup Gyro Horizon must be a vacuum driven unit. If the backup Horizon Gyro is electric, it must be interfaced to a standby battery or to an independent DC bus being driven by an alternator independent of the Aspen EFD1000.

Will the Aspen interface to my autopilot?

Most popular GA autopilots will interface with the Aspen. The Aspen will not be able to replace the autopilots position reference source (i.e. Horizon gyro or Turn Coordinator gyro). The Aspen will be able to provide a  heading input, GPSS input, and nav input to the autopilot.

Note: The initial EFD1000 units will not interface with Century or Cessna autopilots only STEC and King. This limitation will be removed in the next software release.

If your autopilot has a DC Flight Director output, the Aspen will display Flight Director command bars. (If you have an existing King KI-256 flight director, you have DC flight director outputs). If your autopilot does not have an existing DC Flight Director output, the Aspen will not display Flight Director command bars.

King KFC200, KFC150 and KFC225 autopilots will be able to provide DC flight director outputs for the Aspen. STEC SYS-55(X) and 60-2 autopilots will be able to provide DC flight director outputs to the Aspen as long as the STEC ST-645 or ST-670 flight director interface is installed.

Will the Aspen have a GPSS converter?

Yes. The Aspen has an internal GPSS converter and will provide GPSS functionality between your GPS and autopilot. Some existing GPS units will not be compatible, ask for details. (Note: all Garmin 400/500 series units are compatible)

Does the Aspen have a backup battery?

Yes. The EFD1000 has an internal emergency battery. This internal battery will continue to power the unit for 30 minutes in the event of an aircraft DC bus failure.

Will the Aspen display data link weather?

The initial release of the EFD1000 will not have the weather interface. The weather interface will be available as an optional interface in the future. The Aspen will interface with the Heads-up XM data-link (the Heads-up XM link is also compatible with the Avidyne EX500/5000 MFD). The Garmin GDL-69 is not compatible with the Aspen EFD1000.

Will The Aspen display traffic information?

The initial release of the EFD1000 will not have the traffic interface. The traffic interface will be available as an optional interface in the future.

What is the nature of the standby GPS in the Aspen EFD1000?

The Aspen standby GPS is built into the Magnetometer antenna. This is a VFR only GPS and is intended to allow the EFD1000 to continue to provide navigation information to the last GPS waypoint in the event of a failure of the panel mounted GPS that is driving the EFD1000. The pilot can not enter a waypoint into the EFD1000, and only the last waypoint or route will be the current waypoint.

Will The Aspen EFD1000 display the 7 required Garmin WAAS annunciations?

Yes. The Aspen will display the 7 required Garmin WAAS annunciations (VLOC, GPS, TERM, APR, WPT, MSG,INTG). (This is only relevant for customers whose Garmin is mounted outside the pilot's field of view such as pre 1984 Beech A36, all F33 aircraft, Grumman AA5, etc).

Will I need two Aspen ACU units?

The Aspen EFD1000 standard package comes with one ACU (Analog control unit). For customers with dual Garmin 400/500 units and one autopilot this is all you will need. For customers with older analog nav-coms (i.e. King KX155) and / or GPS units that use an RS232 output rather than ARINC 429, a second ACU may be required.

What is the issue with heading bootstrap compatibility?

This will only be an issue for some installations. The heading bootstrap is an electronic interface that allows the aircraft's HSI or DG to electrically transmit the heading information to another avionics system. Examples of avionics systems that may require a bootstrap from the HSI or DG would be; Sky watch (TAS) traffic systems, Air Data computers, WX500 storm scopes, Argus maps, Avidyne EX500/5000 MFD that have radar interface, RMI systems, Sandel/King EHSI's.

Most GA bootstraps were accomplished using an older analog XYZ 26 volt 400 hz syncro format. The Aspen EFD1000 does not support this format. The Aspen EFD1000 supports low speed ARINC 429 label 320 digital bootstrap format. This can substitute for the legacy analog bootstrap in some configurations (such as the L-3 Sky watch system which can accept XYZ analog, or 429 digital heading input). There are external heading converters that can take the Aspen 429 digital heading output and convert it to the legacy analog XYZ format, but these are in the $4000.00 range and generaly cost prohibitive. For customers that have legacy equipment that must have an analog bootstrap input, we would recommend retaining the legacy HSI/DG and re-locating it to the co-pilot (or other) location.

Penn Avionics can evaluate the customer's aircraft and provide a written quote for the Aspen EFD1000. Please use our on line quote request form.