Avionics News July 2015 - 47

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Garmin G3X Touch from
an owner's perspective
An RV-7A as a flying G3X Touch showroom
Pahan Ranasingha, owner of Avionics Installations Inc. in Port Orange, Forida, was so impressed
with the Garmin G3X Touch that he installed not one, but three of the 10-inch displays in his RV-7A
demonstrator.
"One of the primary reasons I selected the G3X Touch was familiarity," he said. "I fly a wide variety
of airplanes, and the Garmin menu structure and symbology carries through from the G3X systems
to the GTNs to the full flight decks. I can quickly switch between a G3X Touch and a G500/600/GTN
airplane or a G1000/2000/3000-equipped airplane."
As for the touchscreen, Ranasingha said he's come to prefer it over buttons and knobs.
"The target area of a 'button or switch' on the touchscreen is significantly larger than that of a
physical button or switch," he said. "The size of the display controls, in conjunction with the areas
built into the bezel to brace your fingers, allows me to more consistently acute the controls I am aiming for."
And, while he does love the touchscreens, his favorite part of the G3X Touch in his RV-7A
is the autopilot. "It is phenomenal," he said. "It's hands-down the best GA retrofit autopilot I have
flown. It's smooth, stable and consistent. The best thing is it doesn't fly like an autopilot - it flies the
airplane the way I would."
RV-8 gets a G3X Touchscreen upgrade
John Thocker built his RV-8 six years
ago. In its short lifetime, it has seen
its share of panel upgrades.
"It started life with a Dynon D180 and
Garmin 496," he said. "Then, I upgraded
it to dual Dynons and a Garmin 430. I got
John Thocker's
RV-8 and its panel
upgraded again to a Garmin G3X, Tru Trak
and Garmin 650. I recently did a new panel
with the Garmin G3X Touch, Garmin 650
and the Garmin autopilot."
Thocker stated that he made the switch
to Garmin displays for two main reasons:
The first was the aggressive pricing and the
other was the introduction of Team X.
"Team X is by far the best thing Garmin
has done," he said. "The Team (members)
are knowledgable and accessible. They also
understand their customers better than
any of the other avionics companies, in my
opinion."
And the products Team X supports get
high reviews, also.
"I like the touchscreen and love the larger keyboard for inputting," Thocker said. "And the new
screen seems more forgiving of polarized sunglasses
than the legacy G3X screens."
He also said that the best overall feature of the new G3X Touch is the faster processing.
"It allows quick map redraws," Thocker said. "That shows up when scrolling the map ahead to
view weather, airspace and airport information. Garmin just continues to hit the ball out of the park
with their innovations." q
Photo by Alpha Tango Photography

"Our first step was with the
G900X, which was adapted from our
certified, G1000 systems, for specific
experimental models," explained
Brian Hupe, sales manager for experimental and LSA markets for Garmin.
"That system was obviously capturing the high end, but we needed to
address the lower end of the market.
We took that step by introducing the
G300 on the Cessna Skycatcher and
the G3X for the broader LSA and
experimental markets."
Fortunately for the market in
general, Garmin's products have
faired much better than the ill-fated
Skycatcher.
"As the market continued to get
stronger and the demand for larger
displays with new features and capabilities grew, we decided to take the
G3X product down a new path that
led to the G3X Touch project," he
said. "The touchscreen display was a
big factor for us, and it was something
we spent a lot of time discussing and
researching.
"Obviously, we have similar touchscreen capabilities in the certified
markets with our GTN series and the
G2000, G3000 and G5000 cockpit
products, so we've demonstrated that
the technology is very effective. We
knew if we approached it right, we
could leverage our experience and
bring it into the LSA/experimental
markets in a unique way."
Hupe explained that one of the G3X
Touch's differentiators is the fact that it
was designed from the "ground up" to
not only get maximum benefits from
the touchscreen, but to also include
dedicated buttons and knobs for frequently used functions such as setting
bugs, waypoint entry and radio tuning.
"The touchscreen layer adds a level
of intuitiveness to the system, but a
large majority of the functions can be
accomplished using non-touchscreen
controls."

AVIONICS NEWS

JULY

2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2015