Garmin announced it has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Supplemental Type Certification (STC) for the GFC 600 autopilot in the King Air 200 series of aircraft. The GFC 600 digital autopilot is designed for high performance piston single and twin-engine aircraft, and also provides an advanced autopilot solution for both jet and turbine aircraft that have a wide range of speed and performance characteristics.
The GFC 600 certification for the King Air 200 provides owners an autopilot upgrade that incorporates solid-state attitude with robust self-monitoring capabilities to provide superior autopilot performance, greater reliability and safety features that are similar to the popular GFC 700 autopilot. In addition to traditional autopilot capabilities such as altitude hold, vertical speed and heading modes, the GFC 600 also includes altitude preselect, VNAV1, Level Mode, underspeed and overspeed protection and more. Pilots can also select, couple and fly various instrument approaches, including GPS, ILS, VOR, LOC and back course approaches when paired with a compatible GPS navigator.
Environmentally hardened autopilot servos designed for harsh operating conditions contain brushless DC motors offering improved performance and reducing maintenance requirements when compared to decades-old servo designs on the market today. In addition, these servos are optimized for turbine aircraft by offering more torque to help better command and respond to control demands required of turbine aircraft.
Standard mark-width (6.25-inch) design of the GFC 600 mode controller ensures the autopilot controller allows for routine installation into the aircraft’s avionics stack. In King Air 200 aircraft, GFC 600 will require a G600 TXi or G600 flight display.
As a standard feature, pilots receive Garmin Electronic Stability and Protection (ESP) with the GFC 600 digital autopilot, which works to assist the pilot in maintaining the aircraft in a stable flight condition. ESP functions independently of the autopilot and works in the background to help pilots avoid inadvertent flight attitudes or bank angles and can help provide airspeed protection while the pilot is hand-flying the aircraft.
The GFC 600 digital autopilot for the King Air 200 is available immediately through select Garmin authorized dealers for the following variants: 200, 200C, A200, A200CT, B200, B200C, B200GT. Garmin continues to add additional aircraft models to the growing STC list for the GFC 600 autopilot.