Garmin last month received the FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) to allow installations of the G1000 avionics system in the King Air 200 and B200.

“We’ve gone to great lengths to make sure customers who upgrade to this panel have the same leading-edge technologies they would find in a jet, while also enjoying the utility and affordability of their King Air,” said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s vice president of marketing.

The G1000 avionics suite integrates all primary flight infor- mation, navigation data, communications, terrain awareness, traffic, weather and engine instru- ments on a single 15-inch multifunction display (MFD) and two 10.4-inch primary flight displays (PFD). The installation in the King Air 200/B200 includes the Garmin GFC 700 three-axis, digital automatic flight control system. The G1000 costs $375,000 installed.

The GFC 700 can fly coupled WAAS approaches and has modes for vertical navigation and flight-level change, Garmin noted. The STC includes approval for reduced vertical separation minimums (RVSM) to support operations at FL290 and above.

Swapping out the old electromechanical systems with G1000 components saves about 100 pounds, according to Garmin. Kelly said the panel retrofit is available for nearly all King Air 200/B200s in service today, because the STC takes into consideration the most common King Air modifications, such as upgrades to more powerful Blackhawk engines.

The King Air 200/B200 STC also includes approval for Garmin’s synthetic vision technology (SVT), a software upgrade that presents a 3-D depiction of terrain, obstacles, traffic and the runway environment on the G1000’s PFD. The image is intended to replicate what pilots would see outside the cockpit on a clear day. Land, water and sky are differentiated using shading and textures that are similar to the topographical colors found on the MFD moving map.

SVT provides pathways (or highway-in-the-sky) cues that are depicted as 3-D “flying rectangles” and help pilots stay on course when flying en route legs, Vnav legs, GPS/WAAS vertical approach procedures, ILS approach procedures, and arrival and
departure procedures.

Standard features of the G1000 suite are WAAS, class-B terrain TAWS, dual integrated solid-state attitude and heading reference systems, and dual air-data computers. In addition, Garmin’s GDL 69A datalink receiver is included as standard equipment, allowing operators to integrate satellite weather and digital-quality audio through the XM WX Satellite Weather service, available to U.S. customers with an XM subscription.