Bench Touring Aspen's New EFIS Line

If you’re in the market for a retrofit primary EFIS, you’ll can expect entry-level, fly-away pricing for full-featured glass around $8000, and flagship systems well north of $35,000. That’s a big spread and Aspen Avionics hits both ends, and a few price points in between.
To help sort out the tricky buying decision, Aviation Consumer magazine Editor Larry Anglisano put Aspen’s latest display line on the evaluation bench for a side-by-side product tour with Aspen Avionics’ Mike Studley.

[@peachtrees27]

Thanks for putting this together. Lots of options for my panel upgrade. Much appreciated.

[@paulhendershott8930]

Lol! It did look like Mike was being held against his will. I kept looking at his eyes to see if he was going to start blinking “save me” in Morse code but I don’t think he blinked once! Ha! Keep up the good work!

[@ammomug5843]

Hey Mike, practice looking at Larry instead of staring into the camera without blinking. It's supposed to be a conversation. You should look at Larry and the camera back and forth. Practice. You're in marketing. It's an essential.

[@joshb5480]

haha @9:20 is probably the most akward. mike is talking the wrong direction and larry is crouched awkwardly on a wing. lmao...

[@gordonfeliciano4315]

Holy crap! $10 K for the small unit and $30K just for the three units minus installation cost. That's about 80% of the total value of my airplane in the used market. Thanks, but no thanks. Unless i win the Power Ball or Lotto, I'm staying away.

[@dennisd7292]

Good info

[@ETraylor3]

I made the mistake of buying an Aspen Evo unit. Sent it in for repair [after less than a year] and it was sent back still broken. Unreal. Never again. Garmin all the way!

[@bjs2022]

Good report, thanks. Only one body mike? Intermittent 60 Hz contamination. Some segments distorted. "Bad (or inconsistent) sound makes makes good video look bad."

[@tropicthndr]

These self contained units are soooo much better than having that extra 150 lbs G1000 crap, especially if you want performance and speed out of your plane without all the extra weight penalty.

[@volstaff4455]

Aspen recently told me that there were approximately 20,000 legacy units shipped. These units all fail (attitude, heading, course deviation, turn rate, slip-skid) with pitot pressure loss. This is a really bad situation for the IFR pilot that the Pro 1000 units were sold to. Besides icing, there are about 6 other ways to lose pitot pressure. The brittle plastic tubing from 45 years ago is one of them. It's quite comical that the FAA required a backup airspeed indicator (but no separate pitot tube!!). Aspen, please give your faithful legacy owners a better solution for this horrible safety problem.

[@peterxyz3541]

I’m interested.

[@northernhappenings]

PRO MAX!!! What a clever unique name... Doh!

[@MikeCris]

I had the Pro 1000 and MFD set up in a v-tail Bonanza. I wouldn't do the second screen (MFD) again. It was a complete waste of money.

[@GaryMCurran]

Mike needs to relax in front of the camera. I'd like to see a comparison to the Pro Max 2500 system versus the G500Txi system come spring.

[@MikeKobb]

Sure would be great if the Pro Max removed the backup AI requirement.

[@Flightx52]

Is it too much to ask not make these EFIS units look like a slide show? Even the new one is jumpy as hell.

[@johncarr123]

Still way overpriced for general aviation. The Garmin G3X and the new certified Dynon tech is where its all headed. Under $2,500 is the sweet spot for mass acceptance into the GA space.

[@scottfranco1962]

a.... "happy box"????

[@maxbootstrap7397]

Much too expensive.

[@caymanhilldesigns453]

This stuff is sooooo overpriced for what it is. Same with the Garmin units. 5-30k is absolutely ridiculous when a ipad/android tablet can do 95% of these functions... For as little as $50 (one zero) or maybe even less.

[@ralphriffle1126]

Mike Studley? he he he. did you wife hive you that name?

[@cleburne-dfwseptic6843]

Mike needs to relax

[@gyrokyro]

Shitshow!

[@endwood]

Too much info, taking the pilot our of the pilot !