Bendix King KSN770 Safety Display

We go flying with the long-awaited KSN770. It has a big-airplane FMS and plays well with other brands.

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For years, there was only two choices for a retrofit multi-function GPS navigator-either Garmin’s GNS430 or GNS530-or the current GTN650 and GTN750. Bendix King offered the KLN94 standalone GPS, but it wasn’t an all-in-one WAAS navigator with an open architecture. It also lacked a comm and nav radio and it didn’t have any multi function capability.

These are all the features the KSN770 was supposed to have when it was announced several years ago. It’s no secret that the KSN770 stalled in the R&D phase and essentially became obsolete before it was even brought to market. But a partnership between Bendix King and Aspen Avionics ultimately advanced the product to the certification stage. As we go to press, Bendix King expects FAA approval any day and is ready to begin deliveries to a market that once thought the company had given up on the GA avionics business.

Hybrid Control

Bendix King believes that manypilots arent entirely sold on a totaltouchscreen interface, so they designedthe KSN770 with a combination oftouchscreen and hard buttons and knobs.This hybrid interface arguably brings the bestof both worlds, especially for pilots that prefer to interface with the unit the old fashioned way.

“You can interface with the unit using knobs, touchscreen, onscreen keyboard control, or with the joystick. Old grey-beards may still prefer to transfer the radio frequencies from standby to active using a familiar transfer key, so we added it to the KSN770 bezel,” said Bendix King chief test pilot Doug Hawley during our recent demo flight.

Tuningthe radio frequencies on the KSN770 can be accomplishedwith an onscreen touch keypad but you can still twist, turn and tune the radios with afamiliar concentric knob and adjust the volume with a familiar round volume control. The comm radio frequency window is strategically positioned in the lower left corner of the display, in close vicinity to the tuning knob and frequency transfer button. The nav radio-including glideslope receiver-is tuned in similar fashion and has a dedicated frequency window in the upper left portion of the screen.

Since the user interface was mostly designed by Aspen Avionics, users of the Aspen Evolution PFD and MFD products will recognize the color and format of the KSN770s onscreen hot keys. There’s also an eight-position joystick-another way of entering data and manipulating the map screens. This joystick also serves as a cursor control device (CCD). The CCD trickles down from jet FMS systems, including the Honeywell Apex integrated avionics suite that’s in the Pilatus PC12NG turboprop.

You could also enter data in aQWERTY pop-up window.The screen is resistive, which means puttingpressure on the surfacewith your finger or anobject commands a givenfunction on the screen. Bendix King saysthe touchscreen will easilywork with gloves. What you can’t do is pinch zoom with two fingers as you would on a tablet display. Instead, the joystick is used for map panning and dedicated map zoom soft keys are placed on the left side of the bezel.

The 5.7-inch active matrix LCD screen is full VGA and has a 640 by 480 pixel count. It impressed us while we flew around in the bright desert sunshine. The unit stands 5.25 inches tall, which is slightly larger than Garmin’s old GNS530. If you’re moving up from a GNS530, your shop will need to restack the avionics rack. Still, it shouldn’t require nearly as much work as fitting a Garmin GTN750. It requires a full 6.0 inches of vertical height.

The onscreen hot keys carry over from Aspens Evolutionflight displays. They sit along the right side ofthe screen and are alignedwith and displayed adjacentto their correspondingsoft key.As an example, when configuringthe map, hot keys and the correspondingsoft keys are used to turnon and off various informationoverlays for each map. The best wayto grasp the concept is to understandthat hot means active, so the hotkeys activate a function and turngreen to indicate that the function isactive.

VFR, IFR or Both

“The KSN770 was designed to give both VFR and IFR pilots tremendous amounts of information. You can customize the displays for the way you think and display as little or as much information as you want at one time,” said Hawley.

You can configure itfor single-screen or split-screen view,add a single thumbnail view of traffic, for example, or two thumbnailsfor displaying both traffic and terrain, while also displaying the map page as a third screen.

The map can be configured forVFR or IFR (low or high airways)while traffic, terrain and weather-including XM data from AspensEWR50 datalink receiver can beoverlaid on each. The system is also compatible with the L-3 WX500 Stormscope. Georeferenced NACO charts-includingtaxi diagrams-come standard and are providedby Seattle Avionics. Navigation data is loaded through a USB port on the front bezel and the data is purchased through Honeywell’s WingMan Services data subscription division, via download.

The system candisplay a variety of TCAS, TAS andTIS systems, including GarminsGTX330/33 and Avidyne TAS. Traffic is displayed on a dedicated trafficpage, in a thumbnail, and as a pop-upduring traffic alert conditions.

Standard is an advisory terrain function with typical terrain coloring that’s displayed on the map page or on a dedicated terrain screen. The system also interfaces with the Bendix King KGP560 EGPWS.

Real-Deal FMS

At the core of the KSN770 is HoneywellsWAAS-enabled GPS and FMS (flight management system).VFR pilots will find that single-pointnavigation is simple, especiallywith the Direct key on the bezel.Here you can select airports and navaidsusing the onscreen QWERTY keypad orby scrolling with the joystick. Point to point navigation is about as simple as it gets, in our view.

On the other hand, IFR pilots who aren’t familiar with operating a FMS will have a lot to learn when it comes to building flight plans and loading procedures. That’s because the KSN770 is a true FMS and you can create and load an entire flight from departure to approach before you even leave the ground. Users that are familiar with the KLN94 GPS (and Garmin’s GNS and GTN navigators) will recognize the Procedure hot key. It brings up a menu for loading departure, arrival and approach procedures.

There’s also an onscreen FMS function that’s referred to as “graphical flight planning”.The flight plan window has a dragbar that you slide with a finger toview the waypoints in the flight plan(or you can use the joystick). As you scroll though the flight plan, the flight planwaypoints are identified on themap screen, so you can watch theconstruction of the route.

Open Architecture

Impressive is the KSN770s ability to interface with a variety of remote systems, including new and older navigation displays. For instance, not all aircraft will be equipped with a integrated PFD, but the system is compatible with some traditional analog CDI displays, including the Bendix King KI209A and KCS55A HSI system. It also interfaces with many existing analog and digital autopilot systems-providing GPS roll steering and full nav tracking capability. The KSN770 is fully compatible with the Aspen Evolution PFD and MFD and with the Bendix King KI825 electronic HSI.

The system will also interface with the Honeywell RDR2000/2100 and RDS84-series weather radar. The weather data can overlay on the active flight plan and display on a dedicated weather radar screen.

The unit won’t, however, display ADS-B data. Bendix King is working on a full-up ADS-B interface-to include Aspen’s in-development ADS-B receivers. The KSN770s WAAS GPS is an appropriate source for ADS-B Out and can feed the KT74 1090ES transponder. This interface will be available in the initial release.

Back in the Game

The KSN770 comes to market on the heels of two other newer products from Bendix King: the KT74 Mode S ADS-B transponder and the KMA30 audio control panel (a product that’s made by PS Engineering but wears a Bendix King faceplate).

With a list price of $13,995, the KSN770 may not attract the lower end of the market that’s been waiting for the low-cost alternative products that Bendix King initially promised. Moreover, the market is still waiting for a modern and easy replacement for the popular King KX155 navcomm radio, and perhaps a cost-effective option for replacing extinct Narco navcomm units. Is such a Bendix King product in development?

“The KSN770 is the first of many products that Bendix King is developing as we move toward the future. It’s the cornerstone of the diverse product line we plan to build going forward,” said Roger Dykmann, Bendix King’s director of product development.

We’ll be watching and reporting on these products as they develop.

Click here for a video of the KSN770 flight trial.

Visit BendixKing.com.

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