Century Avionics completed another Cessna Caravan upgrade
Century Avionics had the privilege to install a new Garmin avionics suite into a 1986 Cessna 208 Caravan, that had been equipped with the latest and greatest avionics system on the market originally. This was the first C-208 that Century has seen that did not have a King Autopilot installed. Digital technology has advanced exponentially since this aircraft was originally manufactured and the avionics landscape changed from analogue instruments to cathode ray tube EFIS and further to the LCD TFT primary flight / multifunction displays and yet even further to the new Garmin TXi touchscreen technology. It was time for an avionics upgrade.
The main objective for this project was to remove all outdated equipment and install the most functional avionics system available. Century’s team removed the interior, which had been re-upholstered for a new look and feel. With everything removed this provided the team plenty of space to route new avionics harnesses into the aircraft, to replace brittle,
torn ducting and make the harnesses look as good as a factory installed avionics flight deck. The spacious Caravan has elbow room which made the rewiring a lot easier than in smaller aircraft.
The aircraft is used for Wildlife Safaris in Tanzania and the owner wanted the interior to suit the exterior of the aircraft and opted for a beautiful British Racing Green for its avionics panel. Admittedly, Century did have serious doubts since this colour of the panel was another first, yet the final product complimented and completed the whole picture perfectly.
The following equipment was installed:
Garmin G600 TXi PFD/MFD(10.6 inch):
The TXi series Primary Flight display / Multifunction display features an intuitive menu interface that lets you use familiar knobs and / or touchscreen inputs to quickly access the functions, screen views and other flight information you want to see. Powerful processors boost the system’s graphical display capabilities. A dedicated Radar page that can toggle to a map page with weather overlay in front of the pilot in the primary field of view, provides the pilot awareness for any weather hazards. The display and autoload feature of approach plates further reduces pilot workload, enhances terrain awareness and instils confidence in the aircraft and its systems.
Garmin GTN 750 GPS/NAV/COMM:
With its centralised, touch-controlled screen providing easy access to navigation, radio tuning, multifunction display features and more, Garmin’s GTN 750 navigator offers complete GPS / NAV / COMM / MFD capability in a robust, single solution.
Garmin GTN 650GPS/NAV/COMM:
If you have flown with Garmin’s earliergeneration GNS™ 430 and GNS 530 series avionics, you will find the menus of GTN 650 have a familiar layout and feel. With the GTN 650 touchscreen interface, you are rarely more than two taps away from all the system’s primary functions. The large, easy-to-use alphanumeric keypad makes data entry easy.
Garmin GAD 43e adaptor:
The GAD 43e adapter unit offers enhanced autopilot interface capabilities for the G600 / G500 flight display systems. As with the GAD 43, the GAD 43e can enable AHRS digital altitude / heading reference with selected autopilots in place of costly-to-maintain ADI gyro indicators. The GAD 43e can also interface to analogue VOR / LOC / GS receivers and functions such as an altitude pre-selector and vertical speed controller when interfaced with compatible autopilots
Garmin GTX345R ADS-B IN & OUT (remote unit):
Garmin provides a onebox, one-swap solution that enables owners and operators to meet ADS-B requirements with minimal expense, downtime and disruption to their panels, whilst providing the weather and traffic benefits of ADS-B ‘In’ (weather for the US market)
Garmin GFC 600 Autopilot:
The newly STC’d Garmin Autopilot provides guidance from a compatible navigation source (such as GTN™ 750 or GTN 650) that lets the GFC 600 system automatically fly a wide range of precision, non-precision and GPS-guided approaches as well as holds, procedure turns, missed approaches and more. The GFC 600 also includes built-in GPS roll steering capability, allowing smoother navigation tracking and eliminating the need for external roll steering converters. A few aircraft / airframe related changes were accomplished to enable the successful autopilot interface and fitment.
According to Garmin, this was one of the first C208 GFC600 installations accomplished. A wide search for certain factory bracketry no longer being manufactured, needed to be sourced abroad for the successful installation and completion.
Garmin GMA 345 audio panel:
Bringing rich ‘home theatre’ quality sound and wireless Bluetooth audio connectivity to the avionics stack, the GMA 345 digital audio panel offers a superior inflight audio experience at an affordable price. Featuring six-place intercom function with 3-D spatial sound processing, a USB charging port, marker beacon receiver, advanced auto squelch, clearance playback and impressive audio mixing and distribution features, this all-digital unit offers the ideal blend of capabilities for pilots who want to hear and do more with less effort in the cockpit. Combine that with a Bose A20 noise cancelling headset for a quiet, relaxing flight experience with superior audio quality.
Garmin GTS 825 Traffic:
Garmin’s GTS™ family of ADS-B enhanced Traffic Advisory Systems (TAS) and Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS I) can make a world of difference. Featuring exclusive CLEAR CAS™ technology, these attractively priced systems provide accurate, dynamic surveillance of nearby transponder-equipped aircraft, with ATC-like spoken audio alerts to help pilots see and respond instantly to potential flight path intrusions.
MidContinent MD-93 clock / USB:
The MD93 series digital clock / USB charger is an accurate digital clock with dual USB charging ports.The dual USB charging port supplies electric power to charge any high-power device with a USB interface while protecting itself and the device from short circuits, power surges and over-current potential.
“This was an exciting installation as it was my first installation on a Caravan and I came in contact with equipment (analogue Navomatic auto-pilot systems) which were probably older than me and I had never seen before” said CJ Woller (junior installations technician). Having qualified, licensed and experienced technicians working together as a team, at Century we iron out any anomalies we encounter during a thorough post-installation check-out, configuration and test procedure. All avionics work perfectly together. After the upgrade when you climb into the cockpit and see your own reflection in the glass, you can see the future unfold before your own eyes! Century Avionics is proud of the result that the company produced and we know the pilots and owners will be as excited flying with the new and enhanced avionics.”