Garmin Declutters Aviation Charting With SmartCharts
As an IFR pilot, have you ever been overwhelmed by the amount of information on your chart while flying a complicated instrument procedure and wished the chart only showed information relevant to your flight? Garmin has unveiled SmartCharts – simple, intuitive charts that optimize your approach, standard instrument departure (SID), standard terminal arrival route (STAR) and airport diagrams to your specific flight.
SmartCharts is initially available for iOS devices in the U.S. and the Bahamas via a Garmin Pilot Premium subscription. For those using the Standard plan, a free upgrade to Premium is available through Aug. 31. All pilots can receive a 30-day free trial regardless of whether they’ve previously used a Garmin Pilot free trial at garmin.com/en-US/aviation/garminpilot/downloads.
“Terminal procedures have long been cluttered with outdated or superfluous information that may not be relevant to a pilot’s flight, obscuring important details that could be easily missed,” Phil Straub, Garmin executive vice president and managing director, Aviation, said in a news release. “Garmin SmartCharts allows all pilots to quickly and easily tailor procedures to highlight the most relevant and key information in a simplified, optimized format to ultimately help to enhance safety and situational awareness.”
Data-driven charting solution
Garmin said it developed SmartCharts from the ground up by collecting and digitizing data from global sources to create a consistent, standardized and scalable charting solution. The company used that data to build a clear picture of information needed to fly instrument procedures. This interface coupled with the digital data allows SmartCharts procedures to automatically adjust and scale as the pilot zooms and pans within the chart. This data also allows SmartCharts to highlight details and notes that could be easily overlooked and lost on traditional charts.
The ability to scale the chart creates a clearer picture of the information needed to fly instrument procedures, Garmin said. The digitized data also allows for adjustments to minima to be automatically calculated, minimizing mental math by pilots. This data is also used to create new Brief tabs, which show optimized briefing information presented when pilots need it during procedure reviews.
Simplified information
Users select aircraft type, arrival/departure/approach transition fix, runway and more then the app simplifies the chart down to the information they need to see to successfully brief and fly that procedure.
referenced profile view.
Quick Access buttons also reveal pertinent procedure information like briefing information, communications frequencies, graphical missed approach icons and more so pilots can easily find and decipher needed information based on the phase of the procedure they are on.
During an approach procedure, approach minima are updated and presented to the pilot via easy selection buttons for aircraft category, approach type (for example, ILS, LOC, LPV, LNAV, etc.) and other adjustments like local or other altimeter settings, inoperative airport lighting, flight director or HUD (heads up display) use. Those selections then present only one minima number to reference, eliminating the need for mental math with traditional charts. Waypoints, legs, crossing restrictions and other details are then more clearly depicted on the chart as users make selections and adjustments. This removes unnecessary information from view, leaving the user with a single route in view to help reduce workload.
After making selections on the chart, a simplified user interface allows for an intuitive briefing process. Pressing the Brief, COMs and Missed Approach buttons on each procedure will quickly show necessary information. Reselecting new transitions or swithcing runways makes rebriefing these changes faster for improved situational awareness.
Altitude and speed restrictions plus other pertinent details are depicted on the SmartCharts plan view of approach, arrival and departure procedures.
In a first for the industry according to Garmin, the approach vertical profile view is geo-referenced with the aircraft appearing on the profile at its altitude. This feature allows for better awareness of the aircraft position relative to the approach path, terrain and obstacles.
Garmin said SmartCharts takes airport diagrams to the next level by adding additional visual information like airport lighting systems, hold short lines, other airport markings and windsock locations, among others. Like other SmartCharts procedures, airport diagrams also have Quick Access buttons at the top of the chart that showcase airport information like communication frequencies, runway information and alternate minimums data. This design removes the need to memorize traditional airport symbols like non-standard alternate minimums and makes alternate minima details easily accessible.
Additional Garmin Pilot features enabled
Garmin Pilot now includes a Show with Minima procedure sorting feature on the airport tab to help pilots more easily find SmartCharts procedures. They can sort approaches by criteria such as lowest minimums by altitude or visibility and available approach lighting. This can aid pilots by saving time in finding an approach that gets them the lowest legal minima, for instance. Additionally, recently released Smart Binders will group the charts by type – approach, departure, arrival or airport info – in the airport tab for easier and faster searching.
Learn more at Garmin.com/SmartCharts.