Garmin G5 pitch adjustment ??

How do you adjust the pitch attitude of the G5 AI display in flight? Transitioning from cruse flight to slow flight at level altitude results in a constant 10deg pitch up display. I would like to make this flight attitude the "new" level flight.

This particular configuration is dual G5's and a GDU11 in a certified aircraft. This replaces all the vacuum stuff with a 12 pound weight savings.

The G5 units were calibrated with the aircraft leveled on jacks and absolutely no issues with function.

Oops...watched a Garmin video on the G5 Attitude Indicator. And adjusting the pitch attitude is a simple button push and knob twist and another knob twist. The procedure is not in the "certified" Pilots Guide so I did not think to go exploring the functions while in flight. I will look on my next flight.

noelf said:

How do you adjust the pitch attitude of the G5 AI display in flight? Transitioning from cruse flight to slow flight at level altitude results in a constant 10deg pitch up display. I would like to make this flight attitude the "new" level flight.

This particular configuration is dual G5's and a GDU11 in a certified aircraft. This replaces all the vacuum stuff with a 12 pound weight savings.

The G5 units were calibrated with the aircraft leveled on jacks and absolutely no issues with function.

Click to expand...

Hello Noel,

Thanks for telling us this is an installation in a certified aircraft. In this case that is the crux of the problem.

Every G5 is capable of providing in-flight adjustment of the zero pitch reference (up to +/- 5 degs), mostly to support correction of the reference for small differences between the calibrated pitch offset established during installation, and the pitch reference needed in level cruise flight which is affected by speed and aircraft weight.

Unfortunately, 14 CFR 12.1303 (f), Flight and Navigation Instruments, prevents this adjustment on certified installations.

We have discussed this regulation many times, but the regulatory authority remains firm in disallowing this useful feature, so it is disabled through configuration on certified installations.

When you push the knob on an EAB installation, you get this pitch offset adjustment which is disallowed in certified installations.



Thanks,
Steve

Wow! Did the FAA give a reason why a pilot should not be allowed to change the indication of pitch attitude on an electronic device where it is allowed on a vacuum operated device?

Or is the reason /answer just to long to post?

noelf said:

Wow! Did the FAA give a reason why a pilot should not be allowed to change the indication of pitch attitude on an electronic device where it is allowed on a vacuum operated device?

Or is the reason /answer just to long to post?

Click to expand...

I have no officially sanctioned ideas. But I don?t find it surprising that the FAA would want an attitude indicator to indicate the attitude. The fact that the traditional instrument can be adjusted is just a quirk of its design - with the ?wings? in front of the horizon, some means of adjusting for pilot height/line of sight is necessary. It was never intended to be used to make the instrument display a false attitude.

Hear Hear!

BobTurner said:

I have no officially sanctioned ideas. But I don’t find it surprising that the FAA would want an attitude indicator to indicate the attitude. The fact that the traditional instrument can be adjusted is just a quirk of its design - with the ‘wings’ in front of the horizon, some means of adjusting for pilot height/line of sight is necessary. It was never intended to be used to make the instrument display a false attitude.

Click to expand...

I agree! I want my attitude instrument to do just that...indicate actual aircraft attitude. If my present flight regime requires 10 degrees nose up to maintain level flight, I want to know that my nose is 10 degrees above the horizon. Zeroing out the pitch at that point will only give misleading information about where the horizon really is.

Skylor

noelf said:

Wow! Did the FAA give a reason why a pilot should not be allowed to change the indication of pitch attitude on an electronic device where it is allowed on a vacuum operated device?

Or is the reason /answer just to long to post?

Click to expand...

Hello Noel,

There are certainly some advantages, and possibly safety reasons, to having your zero pitch attitude established and fixed at installation/calibration, and we can understand that.

It is, however, a very common customer request to be able to make small pitch adjustments so they don't have to drone along in cruise level flight with a small pitch offset on the artificial horizon due to speed/weight, and we like to give customers that choice when we can.

Thanks,
Steve

g3xpert said:

We have discussed this regulation many times, but the regulatory authority remains firm in disallowing this useful feature, so it is disabled through configuration on certified installations.

Click to expand...

Apologies for the drift, but is this also the reason the certified G5 can only display Nav info from Nav 1? We?re about to put two G5s, a 650, and a 255 in our club Tiger and it seems silly to need to have the 255 hardwired to an old indicator.

Any chance the regulators will wise up to the reality that switching Nav sources is a REALLY useful thing? Heck, we?ve been doing it for years flip flopping between GPS and VLOC.

ksauce said:

Apologies for the drift, but is this also the reason the certified G5 can only display Nav info from Nav 1? We?re about to put two G5s, a 650, and a 255 in our club Tiger and it seems silly to need to have the 255 hardwired to an old indicator.

Any chance the regulators will wise up to the reality that switching Nav sources is a REALLY useful thing? Heck, we?ve been doing it for years flip flopping between GPS and VLOC.

Click to expand...

Hello Kevin,

Good question. As you probably noticed, the Non-Certified G5 Installation Manual now shows how to wire a dual navigator solution with a GTN 650 and GNC 255. This is one of the newer software features of the G5, and these features normally make it to EAB aircraft sooner than certified aircraft due to the huge amount of time and effort it takes to STC new products and features for certified aircraft.

Those that think the door has been flung wide open creating an easy path for getting non-certified avionics into certified aircraft don't see what we have to go through to do this.

We don't expect any certification hurdles to supporting dual navigators for certified installations, and hope to do this, but this has been a lower priority than wrapping up the GFC 500 autopilot initial certification this month, and making G5 based autopilots available for Cessna 172/182 aircraft (Piper PA-28 series up next, with more to follow).

Thanks,
Steve

When calibrating for level flight, do you need to put it on jacks to have it level? I need to throw a level on my plane but it looks to be my rv6A is within the 30degree tolerance.

dmat said:

When calibrating for level flight, do you need to put it on jacks to have it level? I need to throw a level on my plane but it looks to be my rv6A is within the 30degree tolerance.

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Hello dmat,

We recommend a one or two step process to calibrate the G5 for a zero pitch indication in level cruise flight.

First, level the plane in pitch/roll with the pitch being as close to the pitch used by the aircraft in level cruise as possible and run the automatic pitch/roll offset calibration described in section 8.4.6.1 of the Rev. 1, 190-02072-01 G5 installation manual.

If you are happy with the indication in flight after this calibration, you are done.

If not, you don't need to keep repeating the leveling/calibration process to make small adjustments. You can manually adjust the Pitch Calibration parameter discussed on page 8-6 a small amount until you are pleased with the result.

The addition of this manual pitch calibration adjustment is a fairly new addition to the G5 software to make it easier for customers to make adjustments without jacking the aircraft.

Thanks,
Steve

Thanks Steve!!

Dan