I confirm Jon's comments and offer the same advice.  I've told this story
before but new builders should be refreshed.   With my Legacy came the
Avidyne promise to support the Entegra certfied units.  They only sold a
couple and of course it is no longer supported by Avidyne unless I want
to load Cirrus software and use Cirrus settings.   My advice would be to
stay away from Certified units in an experimental application unless
there are circumstances that warrant otherwise.   I'd love to sell my
units to a Cirrus driver and go to an experimental set of displays with
all the flaws that might come with that decision.   I believe I'd get
updated software, features, lower price point and better support.   I
could be wrong.

Paul
Spruce Creek

On 2012-02-26, at 4:42 PM, jon hadlich wrote:

  G900 users and guys thinking EFIS. When you buy Garmin you are
dealing with the new King, with intended pun. They are probably now the
leaders of most GA related equipment. When you deal with them you get a
huge company with a perceived sense of reliability and dependability.
What you also get is the FAA mandating certain things. They're very
regimented in their thinking. They have certain things they want to see
and don't want to see. The FAA is a little more lax with the
experimental community ( they let you have engine monitoring on the
EFIS), but still expect certain things Garmin can't deviate from.One of
these things is probably software updates and the testing procedure.
It's probably a pain in the ass. I think this is where a lot of ignoring
of any recommendations or advice from the users comes from. Garmin can't
budge either due to FAA, cost or both.
  If you  want to suggest or ask for something out of the ordinary or
specific to your airframe, go with Advanced Flight Systems, Grand Rapids
Tech, Dynon. These systems are geared toward the experimental community
and are more open to suggestions or unusual requests.Their equipment is
designed for a wide range of aircraft instead of just 5. In my
experience all these companies are just as picky about their equipment
as Garmin and they are generally as dependable. And they're mostly very
nice to deal with.
  As to software, all software is the ultimate "black box" to most of
us. All software should be completely tested in a flight environment, my
opinion. I'm sure all the EFIS software guys do this. And there's still
that bug that might crop up in an obscure situation that the testing
guys didn't try. I'm not an EFIS expert, just an installer. When you buy Garmin, you get
some of the best. But you're stuck with what you get.

-- Jon Hadlich
AI Systems
(541) 815-7381

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