Garmin International said on Monday that it expected to have FAA approval for its GI 275 electronic instrument in VFR helicopters by the end of March.
The GI 275 is a direct replacement for legacy pressure instruments including the attitude indicator, course deviation indicator (CDI), horizontal situation indicator (HSI) and multi function display (MFD).
Garmin says the approval for a supplemental type certificate (STC) will be available for VFR helicopters including the Bell 206 range.
“We are thrilled to bring the popular and extraordinarily capable GI 275 to the helicopter market,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin vice president of aviation sales and marketing.
“The GI 275 electronic flight instrument can provide helicopter owners and operators an impressive amount of information in a lightweight and compact design that’s easy to incorporate into a variety of panels.
"It’s an economical and scalable approach to upgrade your avionics, and we look forward to making this versatile touchscreen flight display available on even more rotorcraft soon.”
Depending on which instrument it is fitted as, the GI 275 can bring new functions to helicopter panels including synthetic vision, traffic, weather, moving map displays and powerline depiction.
Garmin says it expects to be able to offer the GI 275 to the AS 350 series helicopters as well as selection Robinson models in the second half of 2022.