A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Cessna Citation 560XL, Excel, XL, XLS, and Ascend

Curt Epstein

With the issuance of a supplemental type certificate&nbsp;for the retrofit of the Garmin G5000 in the Cessna Citation 560XL earlier this month, Elliott Aviation has begun its first installation of the upgraded flight deck on a Citation Excel along with its <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-03-27/elliott-gets-pma-nod-prizm-lighting-shades">own Prizm cabin lighting system and Smart Vision Shades</a>. &nbsp;

 


The G5000 STC applies to nearly 700 aircraft, and the Illinois-based MRO—which in 2015 performed the first retrofit of the avionics package in a Hawker 400XP—said it already has 16 more 560XLs booked in the queue for the installation. “We expect the Garmin G5000 program for the Citation Excel and XLS to be a huge success,” said Conrad Theisen, Elliott’s director of avionics sales. “We have seen a lot of interest from early adopters with 17 aircraft sold.”

 


The&nbsp;retrofit for the Excel and XLS carries an average base installation price of $500,000&nbsp;and replaces the Honeywell Primus 1000 avionics, including the flight director system and autopilot, and offers ADS-B Out, WAAS/LPV, dual-channel digital flight control system, integrated engine indication&nbsp;and crew alerting system (EICAS), all in a lighter-weight package, while swapping the obsolescent CRT screens for LCDs. Current options include synthetic vision, turbulence detection, SurfaceWatch, underspeed protection, and Chartview. Additional optional functions such as CPDLC/Link 2000 services, FANS-1/A, and lightning and hail prediction will be added in the future.

New developments and products in avionics, specifically about aircraft electronics in the cockpit.

Elliott Starts First G5000 Install on Citation Excel

After the issuance of an STC for the upgrade earlier this month, the MRO says it has another 16 Citations lined up to receive the G5000.

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Cessna Citation 560XL, Excel, XL, XLS, and Ascend

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