The FAA has approved a supplemental type certificate for the installation of Garmin GI 275 electronic flight instruments in the MD Helicopters MD500D/E and MD530F/F Plus, further expanding the Part 27 approvals for the GI 275 series.
The GI 275 is a direct replacement for the helicopters’ original instruments including the attitude indicator, course deviation indicator, and heading and horizontal situation indicators. Installation is simplified: the GI 275 fits in a standard 3.125-inch flight instrument panel hole.
Configured as a primary flight display/attitude indicator, the GI 275 can display Garmin’s optional helicopter synthetic vision technology, which shows 3D topographic terrain, traffic, obstacles, power lines, and airport signposts. Other features include a display of outside air temperature, groundspeed, true airspeed, and wind information. Helicopter terrain awareness and warning system also is available on the GI 275, and it can be paired with Garmin’s GRA 55 or GRA 5500 radar altimeters or select third-party products.
Many multifunction display capabilities are also available with the installation of another GI 275, including a moving map, weather, traffic, obstacles, WireAware power lines, SafeTaxi airport diagrams, and five-color terrain shading. A built-in VFR GPS enables direct-to-navigation guidance, displaying aircraft position information on the moving map.