Texas Aircraft Manufacturing’s Colt LSA already has an avionics upgrade early it its lifespan, with the G3X Touch EFIS and GTN 650 becoming newly available. The Colt’s standard avionics package is built around a Dynon display, but the company says that flight schools intending to use the Colt for primary flight training have requested the G3X to be more in line with their higher-end trainers and transition aircraft.
“In the short time since the Colt was introduced, it has received a lot of attention from flight schools looking for a modern and affordable technically advanced aircraft (TAA),” says Texas Aircraft Manufacturing’s Customer Engagement Team Member Scott Musselman. “Couple the Garmin avionics with the Colt’s attractive pricing and low operating costs, and you’ll have an ideal industry standard training aircraft for entry-level up through instrument and commercial training. Today’s students want to train on the same avionics they will be using later as they advance into more complex Garmin-equipped aircraft,” he said. “The wide variety of Garmin avionics that we will make available for the Colt will give flight schools and private owners a great deal of flexibility in how their avionics are configured.”
A basic Garmin-based VFR package takes the Colt to $139,000, while a configuration the company calls “Heavy IFR” sells for just over $170,000. Garmin avionics are also offered a la carte, and include the GTN 650 IFR GPS, G5 backup EFIS (standard on IFR packages), two- or three-axis autopilots, additional comm radios and a remote-mount transponder.
The Colt has a max cruise of 118 knots true airspeed (KTAS), a regular cruise of 104 KTAS and holds 31 GAL of fuel; the engine is the 100-HP Rotax 912 ULS.
