DFC90 Attitude-Based Digital Autopilot for Avidyne PFD or Aspen EFD-equipped aircraft

DFC90 for Cirrus, Cessna 182, Beech Bonanza & Baron

 

Aspen Equipped Cirrus with Avidyne DFC90Aspen Equipped Cirrus with Avidyne DFC90
Avidyne Equipped Piper with DFC90Aspen Equipped Cessna C182 with Avidyne DFC90


 

 

Avidyne’s DFC90 Attitude-Based Digital Autopilot enhances precision of flight and improves safety for your aircraft.

 

DFC90 will utilize either an Entegra EXP5000 or Aspen EFD1000 Pro PFD as the attitude source.

 

The DFC90 adds the precision of an attitude-based flight control system and Avidyne’s innovative, safety-enhancing Envelope Protection capability.

The DFC90 has all the standard vertical and lateral modes of operation of a turbine-class autopilot system, including Flight Director (FD), Altitude Hold (ALT), Airspeed Hold (IAS), Vertical Speed Hold (VS), Heading (HDG), and Navigation (NAV, APPR, LOC/GS, GPSS).

Customers upgrading from the STEC 55X will notice several major performance and feature improvements including:

  1. Attitude-Based - Greatly improved stability due to the use of attitude data to control the autopilot inner control loops. This is particularly evident and important when tracking an ILS to minimums in windy conditions.

  2. Flight Envelope Protection - Prevents autopilot-induced overspeeds, which have previously been a major contributing factor in GA accidents. This includes having the autopilot avoid exceeding the flight envelope while providing visual and aural warnings to the pilot.  

  3. “Straight & Level” Button – Recovers the aircraft from unusual attitudes. Overrides all autopilot modes and levels the aircraft in both pitch and roll from a wide range of capture attitudes for an added measure of safety.  S&L button provides added peace of mind—especially for non-pilot in right seat (i.e. Cirrus Parachute).

  4. Indicated Airspeed Hold (IAS)  - New vertical mode includes a dedicated Airspeed knob and a new airspeed bug on the PFD. Provides constant speed flight level changes.

  5. Enhanced Fight Director capability of the DFC90 is vastly improved and greatly improves the ability to hand-fly approaches.

  6. Synchronized Heading Bug – With the DFC90, turns are commanded in correlation with the spin of the heading knob. In other words, you can make the autopilot do a right-hand 270 degree turn if you spin the heading knob right 270 deg.

Entegra with DFC90 Autopilot

There are many other improvements, such as a dedicated Vertical Speed knob, pitch hold mode, wide autopilot engagement, additional annunciations in PFD 8.0, a dedicated GPSS button, automatic Back Course Approach selection, multiple color annunciations to indicate armed and active states, intercept mode annunciations, and Avidyne’s hallmark ease of use.

 

Flight Envelope Protection

For flight envelope protection, available lift and speed margin are calculated constantly in the background whenever any mode, including Flight Director modes, are in operation. In Flight Director modes, all these actions appear as guidance cues with corrections blended into the "V-bar" commands.

 

DFC90 Expansion

Plug & Play for Beech Baron, Bonanza and Cessna 182 Owners.

 

Cessna C182 featuring Avidyne DFC90


C182 with DFC90 and Aspen Pro PFD.

 

  • Extending certification basis to include the Beech Baron & Bonanza and Cessna 182 aircraft.
  • For compatible autopilots, DFC90 will utilize existing servos, brackets, wiring and trays (for the STEC 55x) to minimize installation cost & time.
  • The ‘Straight & Level’ and Flight Envelope Protection safety features will now be available to a large group of aircraft owners.
  • List price of DFC90 is $9,995 for piston single aircraft, and $14,995 for twins and turbine aircraft. Available starting in 2012.

Specifications

Dimensions
• Width: 6.25" (159mm)
• Height: 1.5" (38mm)
• Depth: 10.6" (279mm)

Weight
• 2.02 lbs (0.92 kg)

Go to DFC90.com for more info on the DFC90 Autopilot