German aircraft manufacturer Flight Design is pushing ahead with its plans to introduce a four-seat certified GA aircraft.
The latest component to be put in place is the Garmin Flight Design Vision Touch avionics suite.
Flight Design believes the avionics package will help to make the C4 and successful. The newly-developed system with two 10.6 inch brilliant glass displays of the Garmin G3X Touch" series offers state-of-the-art performance for pilots, and as the system that does not have a TSO approval on its own, it will be certified together with the airframe, enabling a lower price with greater flexibility for system enhancements and upgrades.
"Flight Design challenged us to design a product that would work for their aircraft, in performance and price," says Jim Alpiser, director of aviation aftermarket sales at Garmin. "The Vision Touch suite is designed for this aircraft and meets the desired goals."
The C4 will debut several of the new possibilities that go along with the CS-23 / Part 23 rewrite, driven by the FAA and well on the way to adoption by all major Aviation Authorities. One of these possibilities is the use of alternatively approved avionics in such an aircraft when certifying the avionics as part of the airframe.
"Affordable new technology is the goal of the Part 23 rewrite," said Tom Peghiny, president of Flight Design USA. "That's what we're doing with the C4. The use of non-TSO avionics raises the certification burden for the airframe manufacturer, but in the end saves a significant amount of cost while offering much more up-to-date technology."