190-02011-11 Rev. 2
GFC 600 Autopilot Installed in Piper PA-46-310P/350P
Page 39 of 46
Section 7 – System Description
AFCS OVERVIEW
The Garmin GFC 600 Pilot’s Guide, part number 190-01488-00, may be referenced for a detailed system
description.
The GFC 600 is a digital Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS). It is a two-axis autopilot (with optional
3
rd
axis yaw damper) and flight director system which provides the pilot with the following features:
Flight Director (FD)
— The flight director processing occurs in the GMC 605 mode panel. Selected
modes for the flight director are displayed on the GMC 605 display and the GI 285 annunciator panel (if
installed).
The flight director provides:
Command Bars showing pitch/roll guidance
Vertical / lateral mode selection and processing
Autopilot (AP)
— Autopilot operation occurs within the pitch, roll, and pitch trim servos. It also provides
servo monitoring, and automatic flight control in response to flight director steering commands, attitude
and rate information, and airspeed.
Optional Yaw Damper (YD)
— The yaw servo is self-monitoring and provides Dutch roll damping and
turn coordination in response to yaw rate, roll angle, lateral acceleration, and airspeed.
Electric Pitch Trim
— The pitch trim servo provides manual electric pitch trim capability when the
autopilot is not engaged. It provides automatic electric pitch trim capability when the autopilot is engaged.
Internal Attitude Source
– The GMC 605 contains internal sensors which calculate the aircraft attitude,
allowing the GFC 600 to operate without relying on any external source of attitude. Internal monitoring
detects attitude errors and will automatically disconnect the autopilot in the unlikely event of internal
attitude failure. The GMC 605 attitude source requires either air data or GPS data for calculation of the
aircraft attitude.
Airspeed and Altitude Information
– The GFC 600 requires airspeed and altitude information. It may be
interfaced to an external air data computer. If an external air data computer is not available, a small Air
Data Module will be attached to the back of the GMC 605 rack to provide basic air data information to the
GFC 600.
Pilot commands to the AFCS are entered through the GMC 605 autopilot mode panel.
Other components of the AFCS include the GSA 87 pitch, roll, pitch trim, and optional yaw servos that
also contain autopilot processors, control wheel mounted elevator trim switch, control wheel mounted
autopilot / yaw damper disconnect and trim interrupt switch (AP DISC / TRIM INT), Control Wheel
Steering switch (CWS), and a Go-Around (GA) switch.
The following conditions will cause the autopilot to automatically disconnect:
Electrical power failure, including pulling the AUTOPILOT circuit breaker.
Summary of Contents for GFC 600
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