Garmin® completes first flight of the newly retrofitted Citation XLS featuring the G5000® integrated flight deck

Garmin celebrated the maiden flight of the first retrofitted Citation XLS featuring the G5000 integrated flight deck. This marks a significant milestone toward completion of the G5000 upgrade for the Citation Excel and Citation XLS. The G5000 integrated avionics suite brings an entirely new flight deck to the aircraft, addressing both obsolescence and mandate compliance, while also lowering direct operating costs. The G5000 also modernizes the cockpit philosophy, integrating and consolidating the display of various aircraft systems to reduce pilot workload.

The 116-minute flight took place Monday, February 26 at Garmin’s Olathe Flight Test Facility, located on the New Century AirCenter (KIXD) airport near Olathe, Kansas. The crew performed an initial checkout of the G5000 integrated flight deck in the Citation XLS, including engagement and evaluation of the aircraft’s all-new flight control system. “We were able to complete every item on our test card,” said Grant Wittenborn, Garmin flight test pilot. “The system performed very well, and we are excited to continue development with our eye on starting certification flying later this summer,” he continued.

Check out the first flight video, G5000 for Citation XLS.

The G5000 integrated flight deck features three high-resolution, 14-inch flight displays with multi-pane capability, allowing pilots to simultaneously view maps, charts, checklists, TAWS, TCAS, flight plan information, weather and more. Through integration of the crew alerting system (CAS), autopilot control is relocated to the glareshield. Two pedestal-mounted touchscreen display/controllers serve as the primary crew interface for the system, offering an intuitive graphical menu to simplify cockpit tasks. Additionally, the G5000 is estimated to provide a weight savings of 150 pounds or more, allowing additional baggage, passenger and/or fuel load flexibility for owners and operators. 

With the G5000 upgrade, the Citation Excel/XLS receives a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) rule-compliant Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out solution, as well as access to more airports and lower minimums throughout the world through standard PBN/RNP 0.3, radius-to-fix (RF) legs support and LPV/APV approach capability. The G5000 upgrade also provides operators with a platform positioned to take advantage of future NextGen airspace modernization applications. 

The G5000 integrated flight deck for the Citation Excel and XLS also supports additional options:

• Synthetic vision technology (SVT™), which presents a 3D virtual depiction of terrain, obstacles, traffic and the runway environment.
• SurfaceWatch™, which supports visual and aural cues to help prevent pilots from taking off and landing on a taxiway, a runway that is too short, or on the wrong runway based on performance data entered during preflight.
• Flight Stream 510, which enables wireless flight plan transfer with Database Concierge, the wireless management of aviation databases using the Garmin Pilot™ app. In addition, the wireless connection will interface with Garmin Pilot, FltPlan Go, and Foreflight Mobile applications for weather and traffic downloads and flight plan transfers.
• Support for terminal and enroute FAA DataCom operations, as well as Link 2000+, CPDLC and FANS 1/A support.
• Datalink weather, including SiriusXM Aviation weather for the U.S. and Canada, and access to global weather products and text/voice communication through the Iridium satellite network.
• The new GWX 80, which offers 3D volumetric scanning, hail, lightning and wind shear prediction.

As an additional incentive for those looking to upgrade their aircraft, the first 25 customers to secure their G5000 flight deck upgrade for their Citation Excel or Citation XLS will receive 5 years of database coverage and 5 years of warranty support at no additional cost. For those looking to equip with ADS-B now, and upgrade to G5000 in the future, Garmin has partnered with select MRO providers to offer    ADS-B solutions that are compatible with the G5000 flight deck. This allows operators to meet mandate compliance deadlines today, and still be well-positioned for upgrading to G5000 in the future.

Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) approval is targeted for early 2019 and will be available through Textron Aviation Service Centers and select Garmin dealers.