G3000 Prime pushes Garmin (and pilots) beyond ‘direct, enter, enter’

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Olathe, Kan. — For any pilot who learned to fly using Garmin’s GNS 430 or 530 GPS, the “direct, enter, enter” mnemonic for proceeding “direct-to” a fix was drilled as a key part of training on those systems. This series of hard button pushes and their underlying operating logic went on to inform the company’s widely successful G1000 integrated flight deck (IFD) that debuted in 2003 aboard Cessna’s Citation Mustang.

While the avionics giant began to rethink that logic with the debut of its G3000 and G5000 IFDs, physical buttons on those systems (including a “direct-to” key) still provide the same muscle memory pathways for certain actions, and system functions carry similar logic to the G1000 and even the older GNS systems.

But now, with the company’s new G3000 Prime system Garmin is set to redefine, again, how pilots define their interaction with their aircraft. The physical “direct-to” button has disappeared. Instead, system functions are organized in “applications” and each app has more contextual features for navigation — all things that make Prime feel more reminiscent of an Apple iPad, rather than a legacy GNS system that was simply translated to a touchscreen.

The Air Current was afforded an opportunity to get up close with Prime during a visit to Garmin’s headquarters in Kansas in September. There, it became clear that the departure from the familiar “direct, enter, enter” logic is part of a two-fold market unlock for the company: further polishing its turboprop and light jet offerings while positioning it for expansion into the advanced air mobility space, where the diversity of airframe and propulsion designs requires a maximally flexible solution.

However, iterating on a product to cater to a wider market is a big step. In developing Prime, Garmin was faced with the challenge of attracting new aviation customers without alienating its existing ones. “The word that we used a lot when we were coming up with this flight deck was it needs to be evolutional,” said Jason Hewes, Garmin’s team lead for aviation human factors design engineering, underscoring the importance of the company’s existing aviation product line. Yet, while Hewes insists that Prime is “an evolution, not a revolution,” pilots transitioning into the system still may find it revolutionary enough.

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