I would love to have a close look at the IFD440 and maybe I’d even like it better than the GTN650
You perhaps mean the GTN750.
The IFD540, the KSN770, and the GTN750 are all aimed at the same market. The first two are vapourware and I would not buy one until it’s been out for a year at least, to get the bugs out. But they are very interesting to watch, as they will have had plenty of time to see the market reaction to the GTN750 and had chances to include features which Garmin don’t have, or have implemented badly.
Sometimes this thread reads like something out of a flight sim forum…
a product gets announced, hype builds and it takes years to finish. it is interesting however that once they are out, the “vapourware” crowd hides behind the biggest blocks of wood or joins in enthusiastically….
Alexis
As you fly a Cirrus, you can almost certainly look at, and play with, the IFDs at any Cirrus migration or CPPP as Bill Schilhammer of Avidyne is almost always there with his demo set up.
However, as I have said on a number of occasions before, I really like Avidyne equipment and have a lot of it in my aeroplane (Entegra, DFC90, MLX, TWX). That said, I share the views of many posting here that I would not buy one of these devices until it has been in service for at least a year (nobody really knows when it actually will be) and until I knew at what price and, especially, what conditions post warranty service was genuinely going to be available.
I hate saying this because Avidyne could, and should, be so much better.
Quote a product gets announced, hype builds and it takes years to finish. it is interesting however that once they are out, the “vapourware” crowd hides behind the biggest blocks of wood or joins in enthusiastically….
Sure, once the product is real and no longer vaporware, there is something to join in enthusiastically about. The KSN770 was announced in 2007 with shipments to begin in 2008. Looks like it missed the mark for this year again. Six years is an entire product cycle. It makes it difficult to not be a cynic.
Indeed and with flight sims you don’t pay in advance.
When I was looking at GTN650s for the Mirage I also considered IFD440s. Glad I didn’t do it as I sold the plane before they would be available. Not sure the new owner will still own the plane by the time they are out.
Jonzarno, i know – but Bill Schilhammer had a stroke and it is unsure whether he can come back …
I didn’t know that! How bad was it? Despite my comments about Avidyne, I have always got on well with Bill and that’s quite a shock.
Actually, next week, they will start shipping a couple of precertified units to owners of experimental aircraft. They now expect certification march/april 2014 and will start shipping end of Q2.
I know I know .. they have proven to have a ridiculous trackrecord for productlaunches and certifications. However they also make really nice products.
I played with it a few years ago in Friedrichshafen and was very impressed. When I read the POH I find it an incredible device. So now keep fingers crossed.. Who knows Santa Claus really might come early this year.
The thing I find “interesting” (perhaps would find interesting if I was an investor) is that Avidyne have been showing an apparently finished IFD540 for several years. They could have been shipping that to the Exp aircraft market…
So I think that they either simply diverted all resources from it for most of that time, or they had a huge problem, possibly like King with the KSN770 whose subcontractor wrote the software in a way which meant it could never be certified (according to a King insider) and they had to dump it – until Aspen had another go and re-did it.
I agree that if they do finish it, and get the bugs out, it will be a great product.
Avidyne seem to have been living on a few bought-in cash cows, like the TAS boxes which just keep selling. I have one too 
