At this week’s NBAA show in Las Vegas, Garmin announced a new series of aviation products that are designed to make the runway environment safer. By providing audible and visual cues, Terminal Safety Solutions alert the pilot of threats to safety in the airport environment. The Terminal Safety Solutions include SurfaceWatch, TerminalTraffic and SafeTaxi.
SurfaceWatch is available on Garmin’s G2000, G3000 and G5000 integrated flight decks and is designed to help pilots avoid dangerous situations, such as taking off from or landing on the wrong runway, a taxiway or a runway that is too short. For example, if the pilot attempts to take off from a runway that is too short, SurfaceWatch’s aural alert will announce “runway too short” based on takeoff and landing distance data entered into the system. Audible distance remaining annunciations are also available and the system shows runway remaining information on the PFD during the takeoff roll.
The TerminalTraffic feature provides the pilot with a detailed image of ADS-B-equipped aircraft in the airport environment, including ADS-B-equipped ground vehicles. Based on type, each vehicle has distinct colors and symbols and is displayed on a detailed SafeTaxi diagram that includes runways, taxiways, hangar locations and more. A dedicated helicopter version of TerminalTraffic is also available.
The SafeTaxi portion of Garmin’s Terminal Safety Solutions has been available for some time on a wide variety of Garmin compatible platforms. SafeTaxi offers geo-referenced airport diagrams for more than 2,000 airports in the United States, Canada and Europe.
Check out the functionality of Terminal Safety Solutions in this video.
