Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), today announced an expanded feature set and new enhancements for the GTN touchscreen avionics. These new capabilities include customer-requested features such as creating and executing customized holding patterns, search and rescue patterns, as well as animated NEXRAD weather imagery from a variety of weather sources. The GTN 650/750 incorporate enhanced navigation functions that are commonly found within popular Garmin Integrated Flight Decks, including the display of fuel range rings, the ability to fly Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs) with radius-to-fix (RF) leg types and the option to load a secondary approach while flying a missed approach segment. Many of these new features are enabled by a free software update to bring advanced capabilities and even more functionality to the existing GTN 650/750 touchscreen avionics.

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GTN Customized Holds and Fuel Range Rings (Photo: Business Wire)

GTN Customized Holds and Fuel Range Rings (Photo: Business Wire)

“The GTN touchscreen series has been built upon our innovative culture, heritage in providing reliable, highly capable avionics and dedication to give our loyal customers more features, while increasing the utility of the GTN through software updates,” said Carl Wolf, vice president of aviation marketing and sales. “We’ve listened to our customers and incorporated a number of their requests to give them what they want out of their GTN 650/750 – and more. We’ve gone one step further and raised the bar by incorporating capabilities that surpass other navigators on the market, which is what customers have come to know and expect from Garmin.”

Customized Holds

Pilots who fly with the GTN touchscreen series now have the flexibility to quickly build customized holding patterns. These holds may be created over an existing fix in the navigation database or over a user-defined waypoint and inserted into a flight plan or via direct-to navigation. When creating a hold, pilots can easily input inbound or outbound course guidance, select left or right turns and specify leg length in time or distance. Additionally, pilots may input an Expect Further Clearance (EFC) time, which populates a message on the display of the GTN as a reminder to depart the hold or contact ATC. Unpublished holds or those assigned by air traffic control are easily created and displayed on the GTN 650/750 to simplify the process of flying a holding pattern. With a compatible autopilot, this process is further simplified to support flying the entry of the hold and the holding pattern.

NextGen Navigation Capability

Garmin is thrilled to offer radius-to-fix (RF) leg support within a retrofit navigator, providing customers with the GTN 650/750 additional instrument approach options. With the GTN touchscreen series and a digital Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI), including the G500 or G600 flight displays, pilots can now fly RF leg types, which are sometimes found in complex Instrument Approach Procedures. This new capability provides pilots and operators with greater access to airports in areas of the world where instrument approaches are nestled among terrain-challenged environments.

Additional instrument approach enhancements include the option to load a secondary approach during the missed approach segment, so pilots can have ample time to prepare for the next approach sequence. For added situational awareness, waypoints prior to the final approach fix (FAF) are also displayed when selecting a vectors-to-final (VTF) transition. Additionally, smoother flight plan mapping takes aircraft speed into consideration, resulting in newly designed curved flight plan segments, as opposed to rigid, point-to-point flight plan connections. These new curved segments allow pilots to better anticipate turns based on airspeed.

Animated NEXRAD Radar

Weather-related decision-making is easier with the GTN 650/750, which helps pilots interpret datalink radar imagery more easily by animating a variety of radar sources. The GTN animates precipitation from several weather sources, including Flight Information Service-Broadcast (FIS-B) Regional and CONUS radar imagery from the GDL® 88 ADS-B datalink. Additional weather sources include SiriusXM US and Canada NEXRAD radar information received from the GDL 69® SXM receiver, as well as precipitation imagery received from the GSR 56® Iridium datalink transceiver.

Fuel Range Ring

Popular among Garmin’s Integrated Flight Deck product line, the GTN series can now overlay an optional fuel range ring overtop the moving map, displaying the remaining flight distance for the given amount of fuel on board. Aircraft range until operating on reserve fuel and total endurance are displayed as a green dashed line and yellow solid line, respectively. Reserve fuel times are configurable so they can be tailored to each particular flight or operation. The addition of a fuel flow sensor is required to display fuel range data.

Search and Rescue Patterns

For operators conducting SAR missions, the GTN 650/750 can automatically generate flight plans for four search patterns: Parallel Line Search, Expanding Square, Orbit or Sector Search patterns. These search patterns may be inserted directly into the flight plan or via direct-to navigation. SAR is available as an option and aids in crew situational awareness during these missions by streamlining the process of entering, managing and flying search patterns. Even more, SAR patterns can be flown by a compatible autopilot, so pilots can more easily focus on the task at hand.

Customer-Requested Features

Based on a number of customer requests, additional features provide pilots with a variety of enhancements to their existing GTN 650/750 series products. These new options include:

  • GTN COMM/NAV control from G3X™ Touch display
  • Additional Metric and Imperial unit display options
  • Updated ownship fixed-wing aircraft icons
  • LP+V approach support

These new features are expected to be available Q3 2015 from Garmin Authorized Dealers for hundreds of aircraft makes and models, including popular helicopter models (installation and optional feature charges may apply). The GTN software upgrade is supported by Garmin’s award-winning aviation support team, which provides 24/7 worldwide technical and warranty support. For additional information, visit www.garmin.com/aviation.

Garmin’s aviation business segment is a leading provider of solutions to OEM, aftermarket, military and government customers. Garmin’s portfolio includes navigation, communication, flight control, hazard avoidance, an expansive suite of ADS-B solutions and other products and services that are known for innovation, reliability, and value. For more information about Garmin’s full line of avionics, go to www.garmin.com/aviation.

For more than 25 years, Garmin has pioneered new GPS navigation and wireless devices and applications that are designed for people who live an active lifestyle. Garmin serves five primary business units, including automotive, aviation, fitness, marine, and outdoor recreation. For more information, visit Garmin's virtual pressroom at garmin.com/newsroom, contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200, or follow us at facebook.com/garmin, twitter.com/garmin, or youtube.com/garmin.

About Garmin

Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN). Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Garmin, GDL, GDL 88 and GSR 56 are registered trademarks and GTN and G3X are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.

All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Notice on Forward-Looking Statements:

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 27, 2014, filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of such Form 10-K is available at www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.