Garmin has received the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) validation of the U.S. Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the installation of Garmin’s Electronic Stability and Protection (ESP) and Iridium datalink in G1000-equipped King Air 200 and B200 models. These technologies offer pilots unique safety- enhancing capabilities such as stability augmentation, an onboard worldwide datalink weather solution and a variety of voice and data services.
“Garmin remains committed to expanding our industry-leading technologies throughout Europe,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin’s vice president of aviation sales and marketing. “With the recent EASA validation, King Air operators in Europe may now equip their aircraft with Garmin ESPTM stability augmentation, and integrate worldwide weather, text messaging and satellite phone capabilities to give them the tools that enhance the situational awareness and productivity of every flight.”
Garmin ESP is an electronic monitoring and exceedance-correcting technology for Garmin integrated flight decks that seamlessly works in the background during flight. It assists the pilot in maintaining the aircraft in a safe, flight stable condition, helping in certain situations to prevent the onset of stalls and spins, steep spirals or other loss-of-control conditions should the pilot become distracted, disoriented or incapacitated. Garmin ESP gently nudges the controls back toward stable flight whenever pitch, roll or high-speed deviations exceed the recommended limits, and will then disengage when the aircraft returns to its normal flight.
The STC also includes approval for Garmin’s Iridium-based transceiver, the GSR 56, which gives access to worldwide weather that informs pilots of METARs, TAFs, and winds aloft around the globe. RADAR, satellite imagery, lightning, SIGMET and AIRMET data is also available in select countries throughout Europe.