Before Sierra Industries ltd. www.sijet.com location: Uvalde, Texas Number of Employees: 100 Employees involved in the project: Robert Tyler Ric Mata Boyce Curfman Type of aircraft? Cessna Citation 501 What was the objective of this project? To develop a Garmin G1000 retrofit for the Cessna Citation 501. The project was done in cooperation with Garmin International, and it marks the first time the company has conducted such a development project with a non-OEM aircraft firm. The N54FT original panel. When did the project begin? Talks with Garmin began in early 2010. When was it completed? The STC was received in October 2011. The first customer aircraft was completed in February 2012. What makes this project unique? The complete re-make of the cockpit and nose section of the aircraft involved all avionics and instruments. More than 150 pounds of analog gauges and old wiring were removed. Approximately 50 pounds of Garmin avionics and new wiring were installed. From an installation standpoint, it is a beautiful kit and well within an avionics shop’s ability to install. The kit comes with all the wiring harnesses pre-made with many connectors and terminations already done. Sierra Industries is the first non-OEM to develop and certify the Garmin 1000 system in an aircraft. Did any problems occur while working on the project? Installing this system in a pressurized turbine-twin operating at 43,000 feet and up to Mach .75 presented some unique challenges, such as planning installations and integration with existing systems like DME, ADF and traffic. The flight director was the most difficult interface. We changed DC to AC for the course and heading signals for the autopilot and rescaled the flight director pitch and roll indications for the Garmin system. How were the problems resolved? The issues were resolved by forward thinking and planning. Garmin did not have any engineering bandwidth to apply to this program. We took a system off the shelf and made it work properly. For the flight director interfaces, we designed an interface unit to adjust the signals. Did you learn anything from the project? The value of prompt, accurate communication with all parties involved. What was the customer’s response? The customers are as excited to buy it as we are to sell it to them. Additional Comments: The STC received covers the Cessna Citation 501. We are hopeful that we will be able to do this installation on the Citation 550s, as well. q after The G501SP panel in a Cessna Citation 501. avionics news • april 2012 33http://www.sijet.com