In addition to being the summer of the portable ADS-B receiver, it seems to be the summer of portable and backup EFIS. Sagetech develops avionics for military drones, but made a debut appearance at Oshkosh with their Clarity portable ADS-B receivers including built-in AHRS (digital gyros). The Clarity SV systems cost about $1000. When paired with an iPad running WingX Pro, the Clarity provides weather, traffic and synthetic vision.
While it won’t do weather and traffic, Dynon’s $1425 D1 Pocket Panel is a complete EFIS systems showing attitude, turn and bank using an internal AHRS and speed, altitude and track using internal GPS. The display can be attached to the panel or live in a suction cup mount. The internal battery powers it for four hours. Vertical Power also unveiled their VP-400 backup EFIS. The $8000 unit does a lot more that show attitude, including a truly unique emergency function.
Vertical Power teamed with aircraft simulator programmer Austin Myers (X-Plane) to guide an engine-out aircraft on a power-off glide to the best airport in range. It takes into account winds, runway length, obstructions and aircraft configuration. It can fly the path automatically and even raise and lower flaps and gear to adjust drag. Lined up with the runway, it will put the plane into a shallow descent for the pilot to take over or to let the airplane settle onto the runway if the pilot is also incapacitated.
