Steve, I have not flown my KR-2 yet. My experience is limited to talking with the hardware and software engineers at Dynon, playing with the D10 on the bench, and Navy development programs as a navigation systems consultant. The Navy deployed this same magnetometer technology about 6 years ago in their tactical aircraft with excellent results. The military environmental requirements and operating conditions will put more wear and tear on avionics in six months than we will put on a KR-2 in twenty years. None of the military magnetometer systems have any lag or tendency to drop sync or get "lost". The Dynon EFIS D10 keeps the heading gyro constantly slaved to the magnetic heading sensor. There is no drift in heading, no lead or lag, no over shoot. You never have to reset the heading gyro every few minutes as you must with a mechanical directional gyro. The gyros in the D10 are all solid-state digital electronic units. The attitude gyros in the D10 are constantly being leveled using solid state digital accelerometers. The leveling rate is controlled by the digital processor and takes into account the maneuvering dynamics and the three-axis magnetic attitude sensing as well. This is a far cry from the mechanical gyros that try to level through uncoordinated turns and aerobatics and made you fly straight and level to get any reasonably accurate pitch and roll info. The D10 tracks the flight dynamics and modifies the leveling routine to optimize the display. There is a small error in the attitude during extreme maneuvers , but you will not be able to see it on the display. The D10 does flag the attitude display when you do stuff like inverted spins or hammerhead stalls. It will recover in less than 5 seconds after reasonably level flight is resumed. This kind of test is easy to do on the bench. The D10 is not certified for Instrument Flight Rules applications and should not be relied on in Instrument Meteorological Conditions. There are several certified EFIS brands available for IFR use, with corresponding price tags to match. The D10 does provide all the FAA-required flight instrument displays for VFR, including the magnetic compass. I have no other flight instruments but the D10 in N6242. You should install backup electrical power. The D10 uses external 13.6 volts dc, external backup 13.6 volts dc (another battery), and internal rechargeable battery power for triply redundant power sources, as you may choose. I am using the first two sources without the internal batteries. Just another cost item I felt was not justified on a VFR bird. Incidentally, the Rutan Space Ship One uses the D10 as a backup to the primary EFIS. I did not use the AoA function, because I had already installed my pitot-static probe and did not want to put in another (separate) static port and plumbing. AoA is certainly a useful function. I have done a few goofy things while flying airplanes, but I have never inadvertently stalled an airplane. My flying is just not that close to the edge of the envelope.
Sid Wood Tri-gear KR-2 N6242 Mechanicsville, MD USA sidney.w...@titan.com ___________________________________________________________________ My Dynon EFIS does not exhibit turning errors, because it senses and responds to the total Earth magnetic field vector. +++++++++++++++++++ Hey Sid - I am about to order 4 Dynon's (EFIS D10) and I still have no first hand info on their performance. I had some reservations and communicated with someone at Dynon (Doug Medema) - he answered my questions, but still left me wondering. I would be interested in any advice or info you may be prepared to part with. I am particularly interested in the AH function during very slow turns - have you noted any tendency for the instrument to lag or become "lost"? Would you be comfortable with just a D10 in IF conditions. I am referring to the functionality, not the reliability. Did you use their fancy AoA pitot? You comment about the compass is interesting - despite reading the blurb many times, I did not realize that this facility existed. I will happily chop 4 x $169 off the order. Take care Steve J
