Garmin has received FAA supplemental type certificate approval for the installation of its GI 275 electronic flight instrument to replace analog displays in Robinson R22 and R44 helicopters.
The GI 275 is a direct, 3.125-inch replacement for a variety of legacy primary flight instruments, including the attitude indicator, course deviation indicator (CDI), and horizontal situation indicator (HSI). The design reduces installation time, preserves the existing instrument panel, and offers a high-resolution display and wide viewing angle for readability in the cockpit, a touchscreen interface, and a dual concentric knob that allows pilots to access a variety of key functions.
When installed as a primary attitude indicator, the GI 275 offers improved reliability, potential weight savings, and reduced maintenance compared to less reliable, vacuum-driven attitude indicators. It can also be optioned with Garmin’s helicopter synthetic vision technology. Additional features include the display of outside air temperature, groundspeed, true airspeed, and wind information on the attitude indicator, and wireless functionality like sharing of GPS position and backup attitude information to the Garmin Pilot mobile application.
The GI 275, when installed as a CDI or HSI, is designed to accept a variety of GPS and navigation inputs, allowing up to two GPS sources and two VHF navigation sources. The system’s omni-bearing resolver allows the flight instrument to interface with a variety of legacy navigators without the need for an expensive adapter. With an optional magnetometer, it is also capable of providing magnetic-based HSI guidance. Additionally, the HSI provides enhanced features such as map inset and traffic, terrain, or weather overlay.
Selecting the CDI source is simple and can be accomplished through the touchscreen interface, while course and heading selection is completed using either the touchscreen or dual concentric knob.
When replacing an older mechanical CDI or HSI, the GI 275 doubles as a digital indicator and adds MFD-like capabilities such as a moving map, weather, traffic, obstacles, WireAware power lines, SafeTaxi airport diagrams, and five-color terrain shading.
For backup navigation, a built-in VFR GPS displays aircraft position information on a moving map. Helicopter terrain awareness and warning system is available on the GI 275, which can also be paired with Garmin’s GRA 55 or GRA 5500 radar altimeters or third-party products.