AeroNav Nav Com and the Current State of Modern GPS Navigation Systems

Today’s modern, glass-based digital avionics offer many advantages that make flying much easier, safer, and more enjoyable than legacy, analog instruments. 

Whether you use VFR or IFR, fly short or long distances, overland and/or water, these modern instruments can reduce your workload, offer higher reliability, (therefore, increased safety), and provide connectivity, all with easy-to-use interfaces.

Specifically, a 3-D global navigation satellite system (GNSS) has brought a major leap in precision, safety, and coverage relative to the traditional VOR-based navigation. GNSS offers precise, repeatable, and predictable 3-D flight paths that alleviate the constraints of physically-located, ground-based navigation methods. Its use enables new route structures which result in greater efficiency – more routes fit into the same airspace, resulting in increased capacity. In addition, GNSS offers major enhancements in awareness information, e.g., terrain, weather, and traffic. Joseph T. Nall Report in 2019 offers detailed insights into the reduction of fatal accidents in General Aviation. The major reason: “…weather accidents—a topic of major emphasis in the industry’s safety awareness campaign—fell off sharply year-over-year from 39 total accidents to a 10-year low of 23, and from 30 fatal weather accidents to 12. As usual, most were attributable to VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions 1 .”

Furthermore, GNSS can offer continuous descent approach from cruising altitude to save fuel and reduce emissions and noise.

Economically, prices for these new navigational systems have steadily reached affordable levels that make a transition to them much easier on your wallet. Nevertheless, when selecting an instrument, the economics is only one dimension in your decision process – system availability and precision, for increased safety, relative ease-of-use, time-to-installation, and connectivity options must also be considered.

As a leading vendor, BendixKing is committed to advancing avionics that addresses the deficiencies and limitations of legacy products. Specifically, BendixKing’s AeroNav navigational product suite offers a wide range of features that make flying easier and more enjoyable. The product suite is designed for Part 23 and Part 25 aircraft owners and OEMs. It is a feature-rich, hybrid touchscreen/physical-knobs GPS/FMS/NAV/COM, and was designed to be easy-to-use, with intuitive interfaces. For example, it can reduce data entry, e.g., waypoint entries, by as much as 75% relative to legacy systems. This makes it much faster and easier to enter and edit flight plans. It also dramatically reduces “head-down” time. The product line is compatible with a large number of popular ADS-B Out transponders. It is also an approved position source for ADS-B. This means there is no need for a separate GPS (or ADS-B with embedded GPS), therefore, less equipment is required, lowering the cost of purchase and installation. It also means there is no need for an additional antenna on the aircraft, which would further decrease overall cost.

Furthermore, 3-D synthetic vision is fully integrated in all AeroNav models, at no additional charge. They all include in-trail synthetic vision display which provides a significant enhancement to situational awareness. This advanced feature gives the pilot a view that she/he needs right on their navigation screen, providing a 3-D presentation of the flight plan, color-contoured terrain, nearby obstacles, and ADS-B traffic when paired with an approved ADS-B source (https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/october/11/nall-report-ga-fatal-accidents-continue-to-decline). The AeroNav adds an out-the-window synthetic vision view, as well for PFD-like performance - including a lateral and vertical deviation of LPV approaches.

The product line also offers major advanced safety features listed below.

1. 3D Terrain, Obstacles and Traffic – provides visual and aural alerts about the terrain. Standard traffic symbols with traffic depictions indicate relative threat level by their size, and relative altitude and bearing. As traffic draws nearer, the size of traffic symbols increases on AeroNav’s screen.

2. Predictive Terrain Collision Alert – offers an extra measure of safety by providing visual and aural alerts if controlled flight into terrain is projected. This feature also includes a TAWS-like 500’ foot callout if the aircraft descends below 500’ MSL based on GPS terrain.

3. Low-Fuel Alerting – When coupled with a compatible fuel totalizer, AeroNav will display a dashed green circle, indicating a fuel reserve of 45 minutes.
Many other advanced features are designed-in the AeroNav product line, e.g., Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity that enables a pilot’s favorite flight apps will always be part of her/his toolkit. 

4. Autopilot Capabilities – The AeroNav series offers the ability to drive advanced autopilots such as the AeroCruze 230 and others. Check here to see if your Cessna, Beechcraft, Piper, or other major airframe is listed below.

For full details, visit BendixKing AeroNav - GPS Navigation.