Press Release
Issued by Avidyne Corporation.
January 10, 2008
Avidyne Corporation has announced that it will donate leading edge avionics components for installation in the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's 2008 Get Your Glass Sweepstakes airplane. AOPA will focus on providing its eventual sweepstakes winner with the latest state of the art situational awareness and entertainment equipment in the 1976 Piper Archer it has selected for its latest membership promotional project. The airplane's completely refurbished avionics suite, which AOPA announced will "take it to the forefront of glass technology", will feature an Avidyne EX500 Multi-Function Display with CMax™ Electronic Approach Charts, an Avidyne MLB700 Satellite Broadcast Datalink Receiver and an Avidyne dual-antenna TAS600 Traffic Advisory System with Heads-Up Audible Position Alerting™.
"We're excited to be a part of AOPA's Sweepstakes program this year, especially since it's focused on retrofitting a well-proven, venerable aircraft with the latest technology and capability the industry has to offer. Avidyne is at the forefront in situational awareness products and these systems represent the state of the art in MFDs, datalink graphical weather, and traffic avoidance systems," said Tom Harper, Avidyne's Director of Marketing.
"AOPA's industry advocacy and leadership are important to the future of general aviation and we're pleased to continue our support of the organization and its members in this way," said Dan Schwinn, Avidyne's president President and Chief Executive Officer. "We also believe that this sweepstakes airplane will help focus valuable attention on the importance of training and the extensive range of technology and capability available to general aviation operators and we're pleased to be a part of that," he added.
N208GG (for 2008 Get Your Glass) will be featured in weekly updates and photo essays on its refurbishment, which will also feature a new interior and exterior paint job, in AOPA's website and the pages of AOPA PILOT magazine throughout the year. Its Avidyne EX500 Multi-Function Display with CMax™ Approach Charts will greatly reduce the pilot's workload by providing full situational awareness, including display of the flight plan, traffic, terrain, lightning, special use airspace and TFRs, as well as datalink graphical weather. WSI InFlight® weather and SIRIUS® Digital Audio Entertainment will also be available through the Avidyne MLB700 Satellite Broadcast Datalink Receiver. Avidyne's dual-antenna TAS600 Traffic Advisory System will provide the sweepstakes airplane with detection of other aircraft sooner and more accurately by overcoming the shadowing effects inherent in single-antenna systems. Using top and bottom directional antennas, it actively interrogates other aircraft, providing timely audible and visual alerts with their precise locations. The feature-rich, value-priced TAS600 system is fully TSO certified, surpassing the performance capabilities of many higher-cost traffic systems and setting a new standard for active-surveillance traffic capability and affordability, making it ideally suited for this class of aircraft.
