I believe you may be under the impression that if there is a red X over an item on the screen that it is a "dummy" or something that is not finished.
Far from it - this is now a pretty standard way of saying that the item on the screen is not working in the sense of "not plugged in or switched off". In case of the iEFIS is has a HUGE amount of functionality and all of the red crosses will only dissappear if all of the items that you see on the screen are in fact connected and reporting no problems.
Of course, in a real scenario you would only have the items on the screen that you actually have so a red cross would show up as a real world problem with the related equipment.
What we need to do for next year is have a complete cockpit mockup with everything attached including autopilot servos, trims, radios, transponders, adsb, ECB etc etc.
With the current demo I "faked" the AHRS and some of the primary instruments like altimeter and GPS. That's just to be able to give an impression without ending up with a full installation job on the stand at short notice (which would have been impossible).
In particular, some of the crossed out items on the screen that you may be refering to are:
ADSB. This is fully functional including ADSB-out, ADSB Weather, metars, tafs and traffic etc.
Transponder: Fully functional with a choice of a very low cost mode-c or a competitively priced mode-s that includes ES.
For both ADSB and mode-S a certified GPS for position reference can be used if desired and you have choices here as well.
Nav radio - fully functional either as a GPS based "simulated" nav radio or SL30/G430 and equivalent as well as the MGL nav radio when we release that.
COM1 and COM2 - you can connect a variety of radios here but full function and 8.33Khz channel spacing is only available with MGL radios. Full function meaning that you can fully control all aspects of the COM radio (volume, squelch etc) as well as all setup through the panel.
GPS - built in 50 channel WAAS/RAIM GPS
Autopilot - an enhanced version of the autopilot proven in the current generation systems (the enhancement will be made available with the next software update for the existing systems).
ECB - this is the "electronic circuit breaker system". The VPX is fully operational and you can control the breakers using the touch screen which is very nice and convenient. The MGL ECB system will also be released soon.
Flap, pitch and bank trim - fully operational with the VPX using touch screen control, MGL flap/trim controller to be released in a few weeks as well.
In the demo the engine data is faked - you can monitor up to 4 engines (no kidding).
While I'm pretty sure there will be the odd niggle discovered in the next few weeks as systems take to the skies in numbers these will be taken care of rapidly as they become known. Flights so far have been exemplary to say the least.
Our biggest problem at the moment is production - we have a huge order backlog for these things - the largest ever in our history and we need to somehow fill these orders as quickly as possible. We are producing them as quickly as we can and shipments are now leaving every day but at the moment the orders are coming in faster than what we can produce. I am hoping that this will drop to sustainable levels once the initial rush has passed.
Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
I hope I didn't come across as being overly critical. Of all the systems I played with at Oshkosh over those two days, and I hit them all, yours has the most potential. I hope you understand though, that if a client can't make it work at the show...it's hard to part with a stack of cash reaching into the 5 figure range. Still, I admit...I am tempted. Had the red X's been fully functional...I would have pulled my wallet out on the spot. If it's fully functional, I really wish you had brought the full system. I think most of us can live without it flying around demo style if all the buttons work, GPS works, radios work etc. After all, it's the integration of these units that is so appealing, we would like to see that integration in action.
The guys at your booth were over the top friendly and helpful. It was nice seeing them at the Horton gathering as well. Like Stein and Marc from Vertical Power, you guys are the type of people I would like to see succeed. Since you are here, can you give us a list of the functions you intend to put into your next iefis update and when you believe that update will be? What will the next 12 months look like for this system?
