Garmin G5

[raytoews]

Does anyone own one of these excellent looking little instruments?
In some ads it indicates it is also an HSI.
Is that an option, a button push or how does work?
Does it have a built it in GPS?

Ray

[DaleB]

You can get all the specs and operating manual straight from the horse's mouth (Garmin). It does have a built in GPS. I haven't read the manual thoroughly enough to understand completely which features are only enabled if it's connected to a G3X system.

[bobmeyers]

Ray,

I haven't flown with it yet, but I have it in my panel of the RV-14 I'm building. My panel is all powered up so I have had a lot of time on the ground to play with it.

Here's a link to a picture of my panel with the G5 unit lit up. http://n626km.com/rv14log018/large-69.html

With some caveats, here are your answers.

It does have a built in GPS and the bezel has an embedded GPS antenna. A remote antenna can be attached. It does have an HSI but not any mapping software or map display. You can bounce back and forth between the HSI and the attitude display with the rotary button. One ad I saw showed two units in a panel with one set to display the attitude indicator and the other set to display the HSI.

An optional rechargeable battery pack is available. The unit will keep it charged from ships power and it cuts over automatically with loss of power. If the unit believes it is flying (airspeed based) it will cut over and give a warning message. If it senses you are not moving, it starts an automatic countdown to shutdown. Pressing the button cancel the shutdown.

It also will drive an autopilot in a standalone or failover configuration.

Now the caveats. The above is true for experimentals only. The more expensive version with the STC for certified planes has the HSI capability removed. It probably has other limitations as well, such as not driving an autopilot in the STC version.

If your putting it in an experimental however it is really a nice affordable unit and it integrates nicely with the Garmin G3x system. The built in ADAHRS has different hardware and software than the G3x ADAHRS, so it is a great independent back up unit for IFR, which is why I have it. The only thing the ADAHRS doesn't have is AOA.

Hope that helps.

Bob Meyers

Flying Sonex N982SX. Web Site Index http://N982SX.com
Building RV-14 N626KM. Web Site Index http://N626KM.com

[raytoews]

Thanks Bob
That is exactly the info I was looking for.
I have a Blue Mountain efis mini but anticipate it will go south one of these days and support is non existent so a new unit will be needed. I bought the BMA I got tired of having the reset the DG. took a bit of fiddling to get it working. I use the horizen as a backup to my vacumn horizen.
I am impressed with your panel, I had an MGL in my trainer 601 but found It to complicated.
I quess im an old fart who can only handle a certain level of technology. I appreciate the amount of info available but found that unless I used it all the time I forgot which buttons to press.

Again thanks for the concise description.


Ray

Ray,

I haven't flown with it yet, but I have it in my panel of the RV-14 I'm building. My panel is all powered up so I have had a lot of time on the ground to play with it.

Here's a link to a picture of my panel with the G5 unit lit up. http://n626km.com/rv14log018/large-69.html

With some caveats, here are your answers.

It does have a built in GPS and the bezel has an embedded GPS antenna. A remote antenna can be attached. It does have an HSI but not any mapping software or map display. You can bounce back and forth between the HSI and the attitude display with the rotary button. One ad I saw showed two units in a panel with one set to display the attitude indicator and the other set to display the HSI.

An optional rechargeable battery pack is available. The unit will keep it charged from ships power and it cuts over automatically with loss of power. If the unit believes it is flying (airspeed based) it will cut over and give a warning message. If it senses you are not moving, it starts an automatic countdown to shutdown. Pressing the button cancel the shutdown.

It also will drive an autopilot in a standalone or failover configuration.

Now the caveats. The above is true for experimentals only. The more expensive version with the STC for certified planes has the HSI capability removed. It probably has other limitations as well, such as not driving an autopilot in the STC version.

If your putting it in an experimental however it is really a nice affordable unit and it integrates nicely with the Garmin G3x system. The built in ADAHRS has different hardware and software than the G3x ADAHRS, so it is a great independent back up unit for IFR, which is why I have it. The only thing the ADAHRS doesn't have is AOA.

Hope that helps.

Bob Meyers

Flying Sonex N982SX. Web Site Index http://N982SX.com
Building RV-14 N626KM. Web Site Index http://N626KM.com