Genesys Aerosystems has released a software upgrade for its S-TEC 3100 digital flight control system Photo: Genesys Aerosystems
In September last year, Texas-based Genesys Aerosystems said that it had achieved Federal Aviation Administration supplemental type certification for the company’s S-TEC 3100 autopilot for use in more than 100 models of general aviation aircraft, and the company is now embarking on an effort to upgrade the system’s software capabilities.
Aircraft certified to use S-TEC 3100 include the Cessna 310, 320, 335, 340, 340A, 414, 421, 425 and the Piper PA-46.
Genesys Aerosystems is to feature the S-TEC 3100 at the Aircraft Electronic Association’s Connect conference next week in Daytona Beach, Fla.
“We have diligently been working on improved performance in-flight and capabilities of the autopilot, which has culminated in a new release of software, Version 1.3,” Jamie Luster, Genesys Aerosystems’ director of sales and marketing, wrote in a blog posting this month. “Version 1.3 delivers several significant performance improvements to what is already a very capable autopilot.”
The S-TEC 3100 is a two-axis attitude based, digital autopilot with automatic trim, envelope protection and alerting, one button straight and level recovery, indicated airspeed hold and altitude preselect. In addition, a three-axis S-TEC 3100 is available for some aircraft. With a built-in attitude and heading reference system (AHRS), the 3100 can also support a variety of panel configurations, both glass, and analog six-pack, according to Genesys Aerosystems.
Genesys Aerosystems said that highlights of the S-TEC 3100 Version 1.3 upgrade include no reset of flight director (FD) or Take-off/Go-around (TOGA) mode during take-offs–a reset that occurred in some aircraft configurations, a system calculation of an internal roll steering command to null any offsets while the aircraft is in approach/GPS mode, updates to the mode display during Navigation source changes, a bank angle limit upgrade, underspeed protection in icy conditions with Genesys Aerosystems’ flight-into-known icing (FIKI) kit, underspeed protection during an approach, altitude capture improvements, and navigation upgrades to course intercept and capture performance to improve how the system accounts for crosswinds.