Daher has revealed the improvements it is making to the TBM 900 for 2016, including enhanced flight envelope protection, better warning identification and more effective flight planning. These enhancements were introduced with Garmin's latest software release for the G1000 V15 avionics suite, which is the TBM 900's all-glass cockpit configuration.
"With the 2016 TBM 900, we are offering our customers a comb-ination of innovation, technology and safety improvements that can be compared to bringing a virtual co-pilot into the cockpit to reduce the pilot's workload," explains senior VP Nicolas Chabbert. "Those innovations reflect our policy of constant improvement, which offers TBM customers the latest technology available for the optimised use of their aircraft."
Flight envelope monitoring is provided by the ESP and USP systems, both of which have been added to the autopilot. These electronic monitoring and stability augmentation systems assist the pilot in maintaining the aircraft in a stable flight condition when flight parameters are exceeded. Also included are aural alerts for stall, overspeed, landing gear extension and oxygen mask use. These alerts replace aural sounds for better warning identification. An angle of attack sensor with visualisation on the cockpit's primary flight display electronic instruments is another improvement, while a two-way wireless link-up to the aircraft's G1000 suite from a mobile device enables the syncing of prepared flight plans and streaming of GPS, weather, traffic and other information to and from the avionics system.
Daher is also including the L-3 lightweight data recorder from L-3 Aviation Products as standard equipment on the TBM 900 for voice and flight data recording. Another option is the Garmin GRA 55 all-digital radar altimeter, which provides accurate altitude-above-ground and rate-of-change readouts.