ANN's Flagship Undergoes A Major Upgrade They say its kinda like watching someone you love going "under the knife," and so there I was, watching my treasured Cirrus G3 Turbo, cast about in pieces all over the hangar at Sarasota Avionics. It was a tough thing to see... but the weeks beforehand were even tougher as we considered the whys and wherefores of undertaking a major (i.e., expensive and extensive) avionics upgrade -- switching from our highly dependable and easy-to-use Entegra 'Generation One' System... to the "next big thing..." i.e., Avidyne's much ballyhooed and promoted "Release 9." Come along with Aero-News for the first part of our look into the technically tasking endeavor we've undertaken... namely taking a good airplane and making it (to our mind) even better. With the help of Avidyne and what is turning out to be an exceptionally avionics shop, Sarasota Avionics, we're going to start documenting the trials and tribulations of this little adventure over the coming months. As we write this, the airplane is done and here on the field at Oshkosh 2009... what we've seen so far is absolutely stunning... but when we fly the beast home next week and start beating her up on a regular basis, we're going to find out, in no uncertain terms, if the Release 9 hype measures up to the capability and engineering. So far,though, its looking exceptionally promising... we'll keep you up to date. -- Jim Campbell, ANN Editor-In-Chief Join Aero-TV As We Take Off On An Amazing Adventure -- The Avidyne Release Upgrade Of Our Corporate Airplane Copyright 2009, Aero-News Network, Inc., ALL Rights Reserved. FMI: www.avidyne.com, www.release9.com, www.sarasotaavionics.com, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews