Piper Aircraft today announced that it will add the Garmin G600 glass avionics suite to its primary trainers, its twin-engine aircraft and the newly revamped Piper Archer that will come to market next year.

The G600 will be offered as optional equipment on the Seneca V – the company's flagship twin-engine aircraft – as well as on the single-engine Piper Warrior and twin-engine Piper Seminole, both of which are primarily built as trainers for flight schools.  The G600 and STEC-55X autopilot will be standard equipment on the reintroduced Piper Archer.  The Archer, which will sell for approximately $300,000 when it's reintroduced in 2010, will also carry other enhanced features -- including  Nexrad weather, air conditioning and leather seats – as standard equipment. "

The G600 adds impressive features to our model line, particularly the way it interfaces with the STEC autopilot," said Piper President John D. Becker.  "At the same time, it will bring a new dimension to our reintroduction of the Piper Archer.  With the revamped Archer, we are reentering a market where newer pilots can step into the Piper product line with a top-end, entry-level personal aircraft that will easily prepare them to move on to piloting the Piper Meridian – our flagship cabin-class turboprop – and eventually the left seat of a PiperJet."

The G600 incorporates two individual displays – a PFD and MFD – in a customized package that combines primary flight data, including attitude and air data, with navigation, weather, terrain and traffic data displayed in an intuitive pictorial format on dual LCD displays. This large, user-friendly presentation allows pilots to quickly and efficiently scan the data so that they can stay ahead of the aircraft during all phases of flight. The G600 is designed to integrate with Garmin's panel mount WAAS GPS products. It replaces traditional mechanical gyroscopic flight instruments with Garmin's solid state Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) that has superior reliability and accuracy, and features rapid alignment while moving, including in-flight dynamic restarts. The PFD display increases the pilot's attitude indication by over 50 percent over a traditional 3-inch attitude indicator.

Autopilot functions that interface with the G600 are altitude hold, altitude pre-select and pitch rate command.