Aspen price cut - Evolution 1000 PFD

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https://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/AEA-Aspen-Reduces-Prices-on-Evolution-1000-PFDs-230506-1.html

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As the AEA Convention opens this week in Las Vegas, Aspen Avionics is rolling out temporarily reduced prices for its flagship Evolution 1000 Pro PFD retrofit EFIS systems. Until the end of April, the Evolution Pro 1000 PFD price will be reduced to $8995 from $10,995, a reduction of 18 percent. The Evolution Pro Plus PFD, which includes Aspen's angle-of-attack system and synthetic vision software, will be cut to $10,495 from $13,995 or a 25 percent discount.


Because they fit into conventional instrument cut outs, Aspen's EFIS products have proven popular for aircraft owners who want sophisticated upgrades without major disruption of the existing panel. The displays are largely self-contained and are equipped with integral air data computers and AHRS, with emergency backup GPS and a backup battery that will operate the systems in the event of total electrical failure. Aspen says even the basic Evolution 1000 Pro is upgradeable for owners who want to stage their avionics investments. The displays integrate with most legacy autopilots.
 
I just can't bring myself to invest in 10 year old technology like Aspen when there are G5s around.
 
Lol, nice try aspen,

Between their deadly failure modes and crazy price tag, I wouldn't buy one for IFR even if it was free, and for VFR maybe I'd pay $1k for it.
 
I just can't bring myself to invest in 10 year old technology like Aspen when there are G5s around.

Just wait till the dynon skyview gets the rest of the fleet on their certified list, aspen will ether have to MAJORLY step up their products and drop their prices or just curl up and die
 
On products like the Aspen and similar, does employing OLED for the displays bring any advantages to the party? (costs, display, etc)
 
I have an aspen pro,came with the airplane. If their giving discounts on the units,I’m sure all of us owners that paid a higher price,will be happy to upgrade with future Aspen products.
 
I have an aspen pro,came with the airplane. If their giving discounts on the units,I’m sure all of us owners that paid a higher price,will be happy to upgrade with future Aspen products.
It's not like having sales isn't a standard marketing technique.
 
I just can't bring myself to invest in 10 year old technology like Aspen when there are G5s around.

Couple of thoughts... replacing 50 year old tech with 10 year old tech is still pretty good. ;)

Meanwhile, I doubt there’s anything all that fancy inside the G5. Its good Garmin and Dynon are competing with Aspen finally in the certified aircraft steam to glass replacement market, but the actual tech inside isn’t anything leading edge or cutting edge.

Spending money on a Sandel... now that I wouldn’t do... LCD projector with a light bulb to burn out in JT, that’s starting to get old, tech-wise, but that unit when working, is a hell of a lot nicer and smarter than a mechanical HSI...

Interestingly, at least for the moment, Aspen still wants the “integrate to older autopilots” market, and Garmin doesn’t. I don’t think Dynon is going to want that market much either, so they have a niche.

And nobody would turn their nose up after buying an aircraft with Aspen already in it, and say they needed to rip it all out and upgrade it to something else... yet.

Aspen may need to not rest on their laurels and do a redesign at some point, just to “feel new” but their tech isn’t that far behind. They’d want to go touch screen, and brighter, mostly.

We also have Aspen to thank for even starting the “it fits in existing panel holes” market. Garmin was, if you reverse this post, ten years late to that game. And Dynon doesn’t appear ready to play at that, at all. Technically Aspen utilizes the space of two traditional mounting holes better than Garmin still.

So we wait and see what they do. It’s better than there only being one option for a simple panel refit, and for a very long time that was Aspen...
 
... and cooler.... Folks that fly our club's Bonanza report that ours runs very hot to the touch.

Yeah, they’re probably stuck using some old LCD tech because of FAA and certification... but hopefully they realized that would be a problem and started the process of asking for parts changes long ago... if they didn’t see Garmin coming, maybe they’ve started by now. They HAD to know Dynon was coming...
 
The screen resolution is so grainy. Low dot per square Inch. It's STILL $700 more than a pair of G5's and the E5 still has no HSI like the G5's.
 
What I like about a pair of G5’s is that there is some redundancy. (Vs one aspen)
 
Couple of thoughts... replacing 50 year old tech with 10 year old tech is still pretty good. ;)

Meanwhile, I doubt there’s anything all that fancy inside the G5. Its good Garmin and Dynon are competing with Aspen finally in the certified aircraft steam to glass replacement market, but the actual tech inside isn’t anything leading edge or cutting edge.

Spending money on a Sandel... now that I wouldn’t do... LCD projector with a light bulb to burn out in JT, that’s starting to get old, tech-wise, but that unit when working, is a hell of a lot nicer and smarter than a mechanical HSI...

Interestingly, at least for the moment, Aspen still wants the “integrate to older autopilots” market, and Garmin doesn’t. I don’t think Dynon is going to want that market much either, so they have a niche.

And nobody would turn their nose up after buying an aircraft with Aspen already in it, and say they needed to rip it all out and upgrade it to something else... yet.

Aspen may need to not rest on their laurels and do a redesign at some point, just to “feel new” but their tech isn’t that far behind. They’d want to go touch screen, and brighter, mostly.

We also have Aspen to thank for even starting the “it fits in existing panel holes” market. Garmin was, if you reverse this post, ten years late to that game. And Dynon doesn’t appear ready to play at that, at all. Technically Aspen utilizes the space of two traditional mounting holes better than Garmin still.

So we wait and see what they do. It’s better than there only being one option for a simple panel refit, and for a very long time that was Aspen...

But a 3308 won't have some of the nasty failure modes of the aspen. Replace the bulb at 400hrs and bobs your uncle

I've been quite happy with my sandel, now if of the G5 had the overlays and other features on my 3308 that would be the best of both worlds!
 
Ehhh, the old Sandel units are a lost cause at this point. Only reason to install one is if your buddy has one laying around and he gives it to you for free. AND you are already an avionics tech and can install it yourself. Otherwise, forget it. (Not a knock on the 3308, actually... I flew those when they were new, and I wanted one for my own plane pretty badly.)

I don't think the price reduction on the Aspen is enough to make a difference. Between the G5 redundancy, price point and ability install one at a time, there's not a lot going in Aspen's favor.
 
Ehhh, the old Sandel units are a lost cause at this point. Only reason to install one is if your buddy has one laying around and he gives it to you for free. AND you are already an avionics tech and can install it yourself. Otherwise, forget it. (Not a knock on the 3308, actually... I flew those when they were new, and I wanted one for my own plane pretty badly.)

I don't think the price reduction on the Aspen is enough to make a difference. Between the G5 redundancy, price point and ability install one at a time, there's not a lot going in Aspen's favor.

Meh, not sure I've seen a good replacement for my 3308 yet.
 
But a 3308 won't have some of the nasty failure modes of the aspen. Replace the bulb at 400hrs and bobs your uncle

I've been quite happy with my sandel, now if of the G5 had the overlays and other features on my 3308 that would be the best of both worlds!

You haven’t had the joy of Sandel keeping the thing for a month and not mentioning they have loaners. Haha. BTDT. Twice.

Wasn’t my airplane but they weren’t the speediest at repairs and the first attempt didn’t even work for one flight.

Owner wasn’t super happy about it. Here’s hoping you never have to send yours in. I liked flying behind it, just don’t expect anything stellar from them when it needs to go on their bench.
 
Meh, not sure I've seen a good replacement for my 3308 yet.

In terms of replacement I don't see any need to be Speedy Gonzalez... it's a very nice unit, better than any mechanical HSI, that's for sure. My mindset would be not to spend too much money keeping it going, and be oriented towards replacement rather than repair when problems arise. But as for installing something new from scratch, it would be pretty tough to support going with a used 3308 vs. a new G5. It costs too much to get a 3308 up and running to be worth the minimal expense of buying a new G5 to drop in. It's more of a life expectancy/market reality issue at this point. A 3308 sitting in a box (vs. already installed in a panel) is almost valueless at this point.
 
In terms of replacement I don't see any need to be Speedy Gonzalez... it's a very nice unit, better than any mechanical HSI, that's for sure. My mindset would be not to spend too much money keeping it going, and be oriented towards replacement rather than repair when problems arise. But as for installing something new from scratch, it would be pretty tough to support going with a used 3308 vs. a new G5. It costs too much to get a 3308 up and running to be worth the minimal expense of buying a new G5 to drop in. It's more of a life expectancy/market reality issue at this point. A 3308 sitting in a box (vs. already installed in a panel) is almost valueless at this point.

Thing is it's apples to oranges and the reason I'm not getting rid of my 3308

The G5 is a LCD display of a VERY basic HSI, it has no archs, no overlays, none of that.


sn3308-aio-zoom.gif


Vs


R6TuVhRHGE-d-hKH8ht3vwrhI-6iDw3hPWkWDS2HAt4bc6a38GAkRLb9y2EZA7GOr_Qg08jQr5m1C01FD5J5JAkk-riNjoR_D0P42puSTtXLjE7V2rKLXZGHTmLlttrlWVyXzCIwQ4yoxowCURG7KVRiMgHAJbxdahHbMR3K8WtWvtLnDFw_SZMB4KQdiC4vOp03mfxBv6f_XWH7A4rLpw7tz15n9siYuLGI3YDGjPgx69L79R1PdGCTINNthHJ9PvSc5ftpS77uIX2N2f2iabv0oPukGAeyzsy756V084-koWP27cbuVcA-0P78RnycuX8hR4J1fgL_9wfNkUUEGU1vwl5D_ha1SxWCiW67_AhSNUEKybcfeyfrnS7v7tc7hLfV54gKlxmxC5nMGLTzDvwcJM4KYsAXpNaxyDop2qXqOjl3jpCmMtqqIDaBIMdgQ6ZM3cdeaItJRLIe6m_R1BejHvWsd7aBs9FEMWTL949r8lmJ8tDA7faip6jr_A0mRdUmy9TMxDeqXawLld7ucZiFAGUUrILYMme9jbPz1gt5tYHjJDx-nOuYqICOGZLVV7I5oTf6u2XVLYOuH2dT0pckzEYOHyGTzw26i6i8oqW2DW9_KDa3=w374-h399-no
 
The G5 is a LCD display of a VERY basic HSI, it has no archs, no overlays, none of that.

Sure, the 3308's feature list is still longer (though I do expect Garmin to expand the G5's abilities with time; they're steadily increasing its features with each software release). But I don't think there's any amount of features which supersede the age of the 3308 and type of technology used when considering the installation of a unit from "ground zero" (as in, the panel has no EHSI in it whatsoever.) It just makes no sense to start with the 3308 vs. the G5. If you're talking about keeping it instead of installing a G5, I think that's a very supportable position and I think I'd keep mine too.

I do agree that an arc view on the G5 HSI would be a very nice feature, and would seem to be fairly easy to add in. I hope we see that happen.

I may be a bit biased because I typically like a clean HSI presentation anyway. In my work airplanes I rarely show anything on my HSI portion of the PFD display other than weather radar. Usually the screen looks very similar to that G5 graphic you posted. Of course I have a huge MFD just to the right of it showing all that information.

And speaking of that, I'm not seeing much of an advantage in the tablet age, to cramming a bunch of information onto a tiny 3 1/8" piece of real estate. We all have huge MFDs these days, in the form of iPads or whatnot. That's where I look at traffic and weather, not my HSI. Or even my GTN 650 screen. That's big enough to get weather, traffic, etc. if I really wanted to. The HSI is for navigating. It's not supposed to be an MFD.

Not a knock on the 3308. I probably have a couple hundred hours behind those things, both in Twin Comanches and some older Cirri. I really liked them. Really wanted one for years - way too expensive at the time.
 
Educate me, what does the arc do?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Educate me, what does the arc do?

It's just a presentation. Instead of a "rose" (a complete circle) it's just the top part. Here's an example.

It's nice because in most cases you really don't need to see the full rose, so it can be a better use of limited screen real estate.

mfd640_6.jpg
 
It's just a presentation. Instead of a "rose" (a complete circle) it's just the top part. Here's an example.

It's nice because in most cases you really don't need to see the full rose, so it can be a better use of limited screen real estate.

mfd640_6.jpg

Makes sense, thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
For single engine another nice thing on the more elaborate eHSIs is displaying airports and setting your range for your estimated glide distance, in the event of a engine failure it really cuts down the wasted time. If that makes sense.
 
Last edited:
For single engine another nice thing on the more elaborate eHSIs is displaying airports and setting your range for your estimated glide distance, in the event of a engine failure it really cuts down the wasted time. If that makes sense.

Valid point, yeah...
 
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