EAA Sport Aviation

high-resolution terrain
images, approach charts, flight
plan routes, and so on. And its
size provides “buttons” big
enough for the normal adult
finger to tap them to enter
data or activate modes. You
can use your finger to “rubber
band” a flight plan course line
to a new point. You also tap in
comm frequencies, flight plan
points, and set the transpon-
der or audio panel all on the
screen. With so many of us
using touch-screen phones
and tablets in our everyday
lives, the GTN 750 makes per-
fect sense.
The GTN 750 has, of
course, the latest in GPS
WAAS capability so it can
guide us along the LPV preci-
sion approaches and any other
advanced navigation proce-
dure. And it has airways
stored in the electronic data-
base. We don’t get many
airway clearances around
Oshkosh, but in other parts of
the country airway routings—
at least initially—are still the
norm, and the GTN 750 calls
up any airway by just entering
the entry and exiting fix.
So everything can fit in the radio stack
along with the big GTN 750, the GTX 33
transponder and GMA 35 audio panel
snuggled in behind the display, requiring
no additional panel height. The GTX 33 is
a Mode S transponder with extended
squitter so, with a final software version
still to come, it will be capable of provid-
ing the required ADS-B out. Like most
Mode S transponders, there is no need to
go to standby because the system senses
when the airplane is on the ground and
goes, well, to “ground” mode, which allows
the transponder to respond to specific
inquires from airport surface tracking
equipment the FAA is installing.
The GMA 35 audio panel controls the
receivers and transmitters, of course, but
it also handles all intercom functions.
The Garmin GTN 750 has the largest display that will fit in a conventional radio stack.
Behind the 750 display are the audio control panel and a Mode S transponder, and
touching the 750 screen controls everything.
The system has advanced digital smarts
that allow it to adjust volume as ambient
noise level changes, and the intercom
uses a voice recognition technology
instead of squelch so no adjustment is
required and words are not clipped. And
just about any combination of intercom,
entertainment, and VHF radios can be
selected. And if you miss a transmission,
a digital recorder can play back the previ-
ous two and a half minutes.
We also had a Garmin GDL 69 satellite
receiver installed so that XM Weather
can be displayed on the big GTN 750
screen. Garmin’s Safe Taxi display, which
shows your position on the runway or
taxiways at larger airports, is included in
the GTN 750, and you can opt for either
Garmin FliteCharts or Jeppesen Chart-
View to display approach plates. We went
with the Jepps, which have been the
international standard for so many years.
And the Jepp chart subscription allows
you to load the charts on other computers
for flight planning, or on a mobile device
such as an iPad.
weather, maps, synthetic vision, and so
on are seemingly unlimited.
GARMIN GTN 750 TOUCH SCREEN
Garmin has reorganized the radio stack
with its new GTN 750 that can perform all
navigation and communications chores,
and its unique design allows it to also per-
form audio panel and transponder duties
with equipment hidden behind the huge
flat-glass display. And you touch that flat
screen to control operations, so that’s
what we wanted in the Aztec radio stack.
The GTN 750 is the normal panel-
mounted avionics width, but it is 6 inches
tall. And nearly all of the front panel of
the GTN 750 is occupied by the glass dis-
play with its touch-screen capability.
The big display is great for showing
AVIDYNE SAFETY SYSTEMS
All of us need help finding other traffic so
we can avoid it, and Avidyne has been a
leader in general aviation traffic advisory
systems (TAS) with well more than
10,000 systems delivered. The company
makes a range of TAS with the 600 sys-
tem displaying traffic threats at a range of
up to 7 miles, while the TAS615 we had
installed in the Aztec can display traffic
as far away as 17 miles, flying within an
altitude range of 10,000 feet above or
below the Aztec.
The Avidyne systems, like all active
TAS, broadcast an interrogation signal
THE BIG DISPLAY IS GREAT
FOR SHOWING HIGH-
RESOLUTION TERRAIN
IMAGES, APPROACH CHARTS,
FLIGHT PLAN ROUTES,
AND SO ON.