Garmin® G5000 integrated flight deck upgrade makes significant progress towards certification in the Citation Excel/XLS

Garmin International, Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), today announced progress toward the certification of the G5000™ integrated flight deck program for Textron Aviation’s Citation Excel and Citation XLS. The recent addition of a second aircraft will assist with certification efforts and expedite flight testing and development within the program. After quickly selling out the initial 25 delivery positions, a second pre-STC incentive program has been created to allow owners and operators the opportunity to lock in a 2019 delivery. The G5000 integrated avionics suite modernizes the cockpit, increases aircraft utility, addresses airspace modernization requirements, and solves concerns related to parts obsolescence.

“Based on the tremendous reception of our initial early adopter program, which has already sold out, we have now created a new program that allows customers to plan their 2019 installations. Our excitement to deliver a truly modernized integrated flight deck to these operators continues to grow as we near certification of the G5000 in the Citation Excel and XLS,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin vice president of aviation sales and marketing. “With the G5000, aircraft owners receive similar to what’s in a brand new aircraft – a zero-time avionics suite that yields a substantially lower cost of operation, that also solves a broad range of global airspace modernization initiatives and ongoing maintenance challenges.”

Certification efforts continue in collaboration with Textron Aviation as functional testing of the system, software and hardware are in progress. Development flight testing is nearly complete with the final software that meets certification requirements. The recent addition of a second aircraft will further refine the field installation process and expedite certification of the G5000 in the Citation Excel/XLS.

“Development flight testing has progressed smoothly, as we have accumulated over 125 flight hours and thousands of hours in system development and ground testing,” said Grant Wittenborn, Garmin lead flight test pilot for the program. “The flight deck has really modernized the operational capabilities of this aircraft and we are excited to transition from development to certification.”

As the G5000 for the Citation Excel/XLS progresses toward certification in early 2019, a new incentive program provides up to 15 additional owners and/or operators with five years of comprehensive database coverage to those who place a firm commitment, offering a savings of nearly $25,000.

The G5000 integrated flight deck for the Citation Excel and Citation XLS features three landscape-oriented flight displays with multi-pane capability, allowing pilots to simultaneously view maps, charts, checklists, TAWS, TCAS, flight plan information, weather and more. Electronic charts and Garmin SafeTaxi® airport diagrams are geo-referenced and can be viewed across all three displays. The G5000 flight deck for the Citation Excel/XLS is expected to provide a significant weight savings compared to the current system, allowing additional baggage, passenger and/or fuel load flexibility.

The G5000 installation on the Citation Excel/XLS includes a fully digital Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS), offering precise performance throughout the aircraft’s flight envelope. New to the Citation Excel, emergency descent mode is available as a standard feature within the G5000 and is enabled by the autopilot in the event of a loss in aircraft pressurization. Safety enhancing underspeed protection (USP) is an optional feature that allows the autopilot to assist with airspeed management, while also enabling fully coupled go-arounds, greatly reducing pilot workload.

With the G5000 upgrade, the Citation Excel/XLS receives a fully integrated, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) rule-compliant Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out solution. Additionally, operators gain access to more airports and lower approach minimums throughout the world as the G5000 has PBN/RNP 0.3 with LPV/APV approach capability.

The G5000 integrated flight deck for the Citation Excel and XLS also supports additional options, such as:

• SVT™ synthetic vision technology, which presents a 3D virtual depiction of terrain, obstacles, traffic and the runway environment.
• SurfaceWatch™, which supports visual and aural cues to help prevent pilots from taking off and landing on a taxiway, on a runway that is too short or on the wrong runway based on performance data entered during preflight.
• Link 2000+ and CPDLC support for terminal and enroute FAA DataCom operations.
• Datalink weather, including access to global weather products and text/voice communication through the Iridium satellite network.