Thanks for the feed. I share your conclusions. If you flown with it, how does it play?
I've flown it, but only about 8 hours. However, that 8 hours was spent going through a seven pages of checkout tasks focused on the unit so I'm pretty confident that it is in and doing everything it's supposed to.
It talks nicely with Skyview and I have no issues with it's performance for VOR/Localizer/ILS/RNAV (LNAV, LNAV+V, LPV) approaches using raw data, the flight director, or flying fully coupled approaches. Everything I've done with it in the terminal environment has functioned correctly with no surprises.
I appreciate the FMS style interface, especially as they relate to crossing restrictions. Flying under, in, and around the Minneapolis Bravo airspace means crossing restrictions are not uncommon and I like the way the unit handles them in terms of both entry and in terms of notification. Entry, from the standpoint that it's easy to add a restriction to a waypoint and see it show up on the IFD's map. Notification, in terms of how it paints a top-of-descent symbol on the display and provides an aural annunciation a few seconds prior to the descent being needed.
It'd be even better if the TOD marker was display on the Skyview map, but it's not. It'd be completely awesome if it and Skyview could handle enroute vnav but I don't think there is anything for little airplanes that does that similar to how a ProLine FMS operates on larger aircraft. These aren't deficiencies in my mind however, just ideas on how it'd be even better.
I've found that both the IFD's map and Skyview's map are great, but have tended towards leaving the FMS interface active on the IFD and using Skyview's map. That may change as I gain more time with the system.
The terrain awareness coloring on Skyview's map is higher resolution and, frankly, prettier. The IFD's aural annunciations ("500 feet", "Caution Terrain", "Terrain Pull Up!") complement this nicely. I picked up a MidContinent TAWS annunciator off ebay for $40 and hacked it a bit to provide all the lights and switches - definitely not required for FLTA functionality but I thought it was neat-o.
Flight planning is great - Skyview won't edit plans on the IFD, but I think it's easier on the IFD than on my Skyview classic display anyway. Squirting plans into the IFD from ForeFlight is not here yet as it is with Skyview, but that's coming apparently.
Support has been good. When I first received the unit, there were a couple of stuck pixels. A call to Avidyne and Steinair resulted in a replacement unit sent overnight with pre-paid shipping for the original unit back to Avidyne all under warrenty. I was really happy with that - I expected it to take a week or more instead of the overnight service.
That's my IFD story so far...