The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has approved Garmin International’s G5 electronic flight instrument for selected certified fixed-wing general aviation aircraft operating in Europe.

The approval includes a supplemental type certificate (STC) and a comprehensive approved model list (AML), which features hundreds of individual aircraft models.

As part of the EASA STC, the G5 electronic flight instrument can be installed in place of the aircraft’s primary attitude indicator or turn coordinator via a Garmin-held STC for the selected certified fixed-wing aircraft models.

Featuring an 89mm sunlight readable liquid crystal display (LCD), the G5 electronic flight instrument offers better safety and aircraft attitude or turn coordination information than mechanical gyro-driven instruments.

Garmin International executive vice-president Phil Straub said: “We are grateful for EASA’s recent efforts and their dedication to implement simpler, scalable regulations that are economical and allow aircraft owners to more easily install modern flight instrumentation, which ultimately improves safety among many aircraft under 2,700kg throughout Europe.

"This swift approval is a significant milestone that revolutionises the general aviation industry in Europe."

“This swift approval is a significant milestone that revolutionises the general aviation industry in Europe and demonstrates Garmin’s industry-leading efforts to achieve these approvals on behalf of our customers.”

The 76mm-deep G5 integrates with the aircraft’s existing pitot/static system to display attitude, airspeed, altitude, vertical speed, slip/skid, turn rate, and configurable v-speed references.

It also provides barometric setting and selected altitude, as well as visual alerts when arriving at the pre-selected altitude.

The instrument also displays GPS-based track and groundspeed information.


Image: G5 installation in a Grumman Tiger aircraft. Photo: courtesy of Garmin.