Southeast Aerospace announced a new partnership with Garmin International to develop technology to replace instantaneous vertical speed indicators (IVSI) and electronic standby instrument (ESI) units in Part 25 aircraft.
The partnership will utilize Garmin’s GI 275 Electronic Flight Instrument to replace obsolete INSI and ESI units on business jets including Learjets, Citations, Gulfstreams, Falcons, Hawkers, Challengers and more.
The lightweight and compact GI 275 is intended to take advantage of the common 3.125-in. flight instrument size, thereby reducing installation times while maintaining the existing aircraft panel. The GI 275 will be available in both an IVSI or ESI version.
Two separate supplemental type certificates (STC) are being pursued by Southeast for both versions of the GI 275. The IVSI STC is intended as an alternative or replacement for the estimated 6,000 Honeywell IVA-81A/D units currently installed in Part 25 aircraft, which are becoming obsolete, with high repair costs and lower reliability. The ESI STC is intended to replace higher-cost ESI and electromechanical standby instruments.
“The GI 275 upgrade will offer operators a modern and cost-effective replacement solution to avoid the high repair costs and ongoing obsolescence associated with legacy IVSI and standby systems on these aircraft,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin’s vice president for Aviation sales and marketing.
Southeast also announced a partnership with Universal Avionics for a new upgrade for Hawker 800 series aircraft. The agreement will provide an upgrade path for three of the four existing Hawker 800 flight deck variants—the Hawker800A, -800B and -800XP—with existing Collins EFIS 85/86, FCS-80 and APS-85 autopilots, as well as the Honeywell SPZ-800 avionics to be updated to the Universal InSight Integrated Flight Deck.
