REFLECTOR: GRT TECHNOLOGY

[Dave Dent]

I have owned my GRT EFIS now for a good two  years and I love it.  I have 
also installed one in another plane we had.  I have a number of stories but 
as far as problems, I have had very little.  I also visited the factory in 
Michigan a year and half ago.  They now have moved to a larger facility.  I 
can't understand some of the problems others have had.  I have had only one 
hardware problem since I bought it and they took care of that in 48 hours. 
No questions asked.

After installing a couple of these units I think it's one of the easiest 
units out there to install.  The learning curve can get on overload when you 
first get it.  But within about 25 hours I was use to it.

Just this week they came out with terrain in the GPS mode.  This I have been 
waiting for a good year.  I have yet to fly with it because I just 
interfaced a VAL VOR to it.  Haven't got my canard back on yet. Hopefully I 
will be flight testing it tomorrow.

The GRT EFIS has an ARINC 429 interface to a number of other components to 
operate.  As well XM weather and GTX330 traffic input.  I'm driving my auto 
pilot through the GRT with a Smart coupler to the STEC 30.  They primarily 
are set up to drive a Tru-Trac autopilot because it can be driven digitally. 
The STEC can't.  You can select witch to drive either GPS 1or 2 or NAV 1or 
2.

It has a RS232 interface to the GTX330 for gray code information so no need 
for a separate encoder.  Just a single wire and not ten.  A single wire to 
the EIS as well for data to the EFIS.

During an actual IFR condition flight one night during a bad rain storm I 
ended up using the EFIS using the HITS approach boxes to get me on the ILS 
and it brought right in better then the needles I think. Tie this into the 
A/P, now having vertical nav it can fly you right to the runway and it will 
capture at better then 45 degrees.  Once you get use to it, you never want 
to go back.  The HITS " highway in the sky", boxes now can be brought up to 
20 miles out before your final waypoint.  This is great because before I had 
to wait till eight miles.  Once the autopilot locks you in the boxes it's 
going to fly you to the runway. It's great.

Another neat feature is you can fly it using a split frame.  This is the way 
I use mine.  I have the PFD and the moving map set up most of the time.  If 
I'm concerned with an engine data point I go to the engine page.

The EIS interfaced to the EFIS is good too.  You can see all this during 
anytime during the flight as well as record it onto a memory stick that 
plugs into the back of the PFD. I don't mount my EIS in the instrument panel 
because I have a JPI.  I mounted it on the canard and pipe it to the EFIS. 
I record my approaches to see how well I've done.  I would like to see them 
record the last 30 minutes of flight time anyway and drop off any time 
before this.  This way if there was a crash they would have the last 30 
minutes to determine what happen. I think they are working on this.  They 
take suggestions real well.
Believe me, after you get your unit up and running and get use to it, you'll 
be enjoying very much.  I only wish I had room for another screen. But right 
now I don't want to do any more mods to the panel. This would be major.  For 
the cost there is none finer.
If you have any question while installing it, give me a call.  I think I 
could answer most of them.
Dave



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. Golf" <drgolf369 at yahoo.com>
To: "Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 7:14 PM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: GRT TECHNOLOGY


>I ordered an EFIS from GRT .Any other problems or good
> stories from their customers?
> Joel
>
>
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