OLATHE, Kansas -- Garmin International has announced the introduction of GFC 600H flight control system for helicopters, that reduces pilot workload and improves mission effectiveness. This attitude-based (AHRS-derived) flight control system boasts a number of helicopter-tailored safety features, including stability augmentation system (SAS), Garmin Helicopter Electronic Stability and Protection (H-ESP), dedicated return-to-level (LVL) mode, hover assist, as well as overspeed and low speed protection. The GFC 600H can operate as a full-featured standalone flight control system, but also offers integration with compatible flight displays, including the Garmin G500H and G500H TXi flight displays, instruments and navigation sources.
The GFC 600H includes SAS that provides inputs to help stabilize the helicopter while hand-flying. The corrections provided by SAS serve to improve the helicopter’s basic handling characteristics by maintaining a commanded attitude. Designed with the pilot in mind, its cyclic-mounted trim controls allows for seamless interactions without taking a hand off of the helicopter flight controls during basic operations, including system initialization of the SAS in attitude mode, and adjustments of the pitch and roll trim.
The hover assist mode helps the system automatically detect a hover condition and provide flight control inputs to help maintain position over the ground. When equipped with the optional yaw axis control, the GFC 600H will also hold heading in hover.