Garmin HTAWS vs Sandel HeliTaws

[HeloJunkie]

Hey Everyone -

 

I am still working on my MD500e and I am starting to get to the point where the avionics decisions need to be made and I was looking at the Garmin HTAWS product (on the 430W) vs the Sandel HeliTAWS unit they are offering.

 

Of course, when I talk to Garmin they tell me theirs is better and ditto for Sandel....so I was hoping someone out there had done a head-to-head and could clue me in on what you found, what you liked, what you didn't like....

 

They both have amazing capabilities and frankly I am leaning towards garmin only because I am leaning towards a G500H installation along with the GTS 800 traffic system, so I figured it would be nice to keep it all Garmin.

 

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many Thanks

[dusttinbound]

The G500H will only work with 530W/430W. So if you are having a 430W installed then the you will have the ability to install the G500H at a later date with no major issues. You can terrain displayed on the MFD on the G500H but still get HTAWS annunications on the PFD by the airspeed tape window. My current company is going through the process of upgrading our aircraft (aerial mapping in Cessna 206) with a complete Garmin package. I have seen all the terrain features on the Garmin units and think they have nice displays and are fairly large. I have not seen the Sandell system so I can not comment on that.

 

I generally recommend to be people that you should try to keep everything with one company as their stuff is designed to play together nicely. You start mix matching most of the time it will work, but you can run into problems where one company says that it is the other company causing problems and vice versa. Then you are spending tons of time in the avionics shop trying to trouble shoo.

 

Kevin

[h2oskier65]

If you go to Sandel's website they have a comparison video of both systems installed in the same helicopter. I think at one point the Garmin unit is warning of terrain for 6 minutes straight with no terrain around....worth a look. Sandel's unit also provides a wire alerting feature now.

 

http://www.sandel.com/ST3400H.php

[rotormatic1]

If you go to Sandel's website they have a comparison video of both systems installed in the same helicopter. I think at one point the Garmin unit is warning of terrain for 6 minutes straight with no terrain around....worth a look. Sandel's unit also provides a wire alerting feature now.

 

http://www.sandel.com/ST3400H.php

 

The Garmin TAWS for airplanes used in helicopters is causing the false alerts....

 

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgSAIB.nsf/dc7bd4f27e5f107486257221005f069d/00cb8ff9134ccf0d86257857006f6525/$FILE/SW-11-24.pdf