Don Dunbar wrote:

Hi Paul,
What do know about this company, I have sent several emails without

a reply.

I was looking to purchase there Epanel system once I checked out a

few

tech items
Regards Don
http://www.pcflightsystems.com/

Never heard of them Don. However there are several outfits doing
stuff for PDA's. I would be a bit skeptical about the E-gyro
until I had a chance to see it work at OSH.

Paul Lamar

I was talking with a person from Crossbow about their AHRS module for
use in IFR and asked them about some of the other systems.  The guy
said that they actually used one of these lower-quality gyro units (not
sure if it was the pcflightsystems unit or not) and he said that it
worked extremely well until you got into heavy turbulence or put the
plane through any significant manuvering.  The errors from the sensors
just overwhelm the real signals.

So, if you plan to fly VFR only, you should probably be fine with this
unit, but if you want to fly IFR, I would go with something that has a
better rate sensors in it.

As for the rest of the PDA software, etc, it's a great system for a
portable unit.  I've been considering selling my Garmin 295 and using a
PDA since I can use it daily instead of just for flying.  Of course,
that was before when I had a certified plane.  Now, I'm going to build
a system into my 4-seater Express.  Once I get to the instrumentation
stage, I'll look over the whole situation again to see if it would be
cheaper to buy a unit or build my own.

Dynon Development just finished the design of their panel-mount unit.
They had it at Oshkosh last year.  The display refresh rate was
miserable at the show (obviously the software was quickly put together
for the show), but they have now finished the development and should
start production soon.  With the AOA pitot sensor and all of their
options, the price is suppose to be under $2,500.  They had significant
problems with the cheaper rate sensors and switched to high-priced
units.  I don't know of any 3rd party tests, yet.  Their web site is
http://www.dynondevelopment.com/

-Eric Holmberg
Express FT

 
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