The GAD 24 (left) and GMU 11 (right) provide ARINC 429 connectivity and a remote magnetometer, respectively. It’s worth noting that the G5 will do winds-aloft calculations but only with both the OAT sensor kit and the magnetometer installed. Fortunately, the GAD 13 accommodates other kinds of probes, including the Davtron 655 ($85). Before you tag Garmin on social media with nasty comments, understand that the GTP 59 is a high-accuracy probe designed for everything up to large bizjets. Now, you can buy Garmin’s bundle of the GAD 13 module-which is less than 2 inches wide and long, and less than 3/4-inch tall-along with the GTP 59 OAT probe for a throat-tightening $470. Garmin recently added features to the G5 that allowed it to display outside-air temp and calculate both density altitude on the ground and true airspeed in the air. Likewise, the GMU 11 does not have a connector kit or a CAN terminator in the box that costs $31.50. That means you technically can’t remove your mechanical HSI or DG and rely on the G5 as a standalone replacement until you add the GMU 11 magnetometer, which lists for $275. Note that it does not have an internal magnetometer. In base form, the G5 will connect to the pitot-static system through conventional 1/8-inch NPT fittings and can use its internal GPS antenna to put ground track on the instrument. You could probably fab your own mount, but it’s your time. Don’t forget to buy the mounting kit, which comes with a connector kit as well as this clever C-shaped bracket. While the battery looks like it adds a lot of depth, it doesn’t really Garmin’s already accounted for the depth of the connector in the overall dimensions. Here’s a good idea of how all the pieces fit together behind the panel. (If it does, though, you’ll need to provide your own 6-32 screws.) So no worries if your panel does not have countersunk screws. Note that the G5 is designed to use button-head screws from the front side of the panel. In this case, $50 gets you a nice DB-9 socket, a network terminator (more on that later), and a clever C-shaped ring that fits into the back side of a conventional 31/8-inch instrument hole.
Garmin says that many builders request the install kits separately so that they can prepare their panel for the instrument without having to buy it. The bare unit lists for a buck under $1250-and it’s literally that, the G5 head module in a box. And it is a good value, but budget carefully. And that influences how you go about… Buying OneĪt first, the G5 seems really inexpensive for what you get. How Garmin did that is both miniaturization of the key technologies, but also by moving ancillary features out of the main case and into external modules. Virtually every instrument you need, packed into something half again larger than a Rubik’s Cube. The backup battery fits along the right side the contacts are covered by a plate.Ĭompact? Did I mention how compact? Try 3.4 inches wide, 3.6 inches tall, and just 2.6 inches deep before you add the backup battery, which then makes it all of 3 inches deep. Upper left is a BNC connector for a remote GPS antenna, below that a DB-9 for power and data connections, and in the middle pitot and static connections through 1/8-inch NPT fittings. From the back, the G5 displays its compact form. That the G5 carries its own sensor pack for attitude and pitot-static-along with its own internal GPS-provides an affordable source of redundancy. So the G5 is pitched as both a primary instrument for aircraft with limited panel space or for retrofits, and as a backup instrument for a now-conventional all-glass panel. Here, the author’s GlaStar has the G5 in place of the conventional attitude indicator, which has been moved down to where the turn coordinator was.īut it’s no longer 2003 and by 2016, when Garmin introduced the G5, the landscape had changed. The compact G5 fits in naturally with the traditional steam gauges. For builders wanting to add redundancy, some form of the old vacuum-instrument system could remain to backstop the newfangled instrument. By adding various sensors and connections, it could calculate vertical speed, airspeed rate of change, turn rate, and display both vertical and lateral guidance. Like the G5, the D10 crammed airspeed, altitude, heading, and attitude into one compact package. Notably the Dynon D10 “10 in one” EFIS with a similar footprint-that is, designed to fit into a 31/8-inch instrument hole-that came out in 2003. And that’s how we get the Garmin G5 mini EFIS. Some homebuilts out there still have six holes in a three-by-two arrangement in front of the pilot, and their owners aren’t always thrilled about tearing out the whole lot to gain redundancy, reliability, or capability.
Garmin figured out that not everyone was in the market for a full G3X EFIS suite.