Designed specifically for FAR Part 23 Class 1/Class 2 aircraft (singles and twins under 6,000 lbs.), the G500 is an affordable, dual-screen electronic flight display that works with your Garmin avionics stack to provide a fully TSO’d “glass cockpit” retrofit option.

Replaces your six-pack with twin screens

The G500’s 10-inch wide bezel fits neatly into the panel space vacated by your standard six-pack of mechanical 3-inch flight instruments. (In many cases the existing airspeed indicator, artificial horizon and altimeter can be relocated to serve as standby instrumentation.)

Dual 6.5-inch LCDs, mounted side-by-side in the bezel, put both Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multifunction Display (MFD) capabilities directly in your field of view to help streamline instrument scanning. You’ll see real-time True Airspeed calculations and selectable Winds Aloft data – as well as aircraft ground speed, GPS active waypoint, distance-to-waypoint, desired/actual track, and more.

On the left-hand side, the PFD consolidates all primary situational information regarding your aircraft’s position, speed, attitude, vertical rate, altitude and flight progress. For added visual orientation, a scaled version of Garmin’s SVT™ Synthetic Vision Technology is also available as an upgrade option – creating a 3-D “virtual reality” perspective view of flight and enroute terrain features.

It’s all about situational awareness

Looking over to the right side of the G500, the MFD provides detailed moving-map graphics of your aircraft’s current position in relation to ground features, chart data, navaids, flight plan routings and more. Initial Garmin FliteCharts® and SafeTaxi® come pre-installed (the charts will disable when the data is over 6 months out-of-date). And built-in terrain and U.S. obstacles databases provide color-coding and other visual cues to graphically alert you when proximity conflicts loom ahead. G500 operation is simple – with familiar rotary knob for data entry, soft­keys for mode selection, front-loading SD card slot for additional data and updates, plus an easy-to-navigate G1000-like graphical user interface.

Experience the AHRS advantage

In place of sensitive gyro instruments, the G500 uses Garmin’s super-reliable GRS 77 Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS). Combining inputs from GPS, magnetometer and air data computer, the Garmin AHRS provides an accurate digital referencing of your aircraft’s dynamic orientation in space. Also, unlike some competitive attitude/heading sensors, it’s even able to restart and properly realign itself while the aircraft is moving.

Synch up with your autopilot

The G500 was designed to interface with the most popular autopilots and flight directors installed in Class 1 and Class 2 aircraft. You can use the G500 for cockpit control/display of heading, course and navigation source inputs for the autopilot. What’s more, with the optional GAD 43 adapter unit, you can elect to have the same ultra-reliable digital AHRS data driving the G500 display to serve as your autopilot’s primary attitude reference. This typically eliminates the need to retain a gyro-mechanical ADI as your autopilot reference for the G500 glass cockpit.

Add weather, traffic and other options

For added cockpit capability, it’s easy to combine the G500 with a variety of optional sensors and data links. For example, digital on-board weather radar functionality can be added with the Garmin GWX 68 (an interface enabling card is required; it’s sold separately). Also available is Garmin’s GDL 69/69A series receiver. It offers weather alerting and NEXRAD coverage for the U.S. and much of Canada, via XM satellite datalink (XM subscription required). There’s a user interface with the GDL 69A that lets you enjoy over 170 channels of XM Radio inflight program­ming. And for help in keeping an eye on other planes in your vicinity, you can access Traffic Information Service (TIS) alerts on your G500, simply by adding a GTX 330 Mode S transponder. Or, you can select from available TAS and TCAS systems, including Garmin’s GTS™ family of advanced traffic surveillance products.

Retrofit made easy

With Supplemental Type Certification (STC) provided under an FAA Approved Model List, Garmin has detailed G500 installation specs for over 600 models of GA aircraft. So, retrofitting is simple and straight­forward. Just see your authorized Garmin installation center to see how fast you could be onboard with this great-looking system in your aircraft.

Garmin G500: It’s retrofit glass for a whole new class.