The market is saturated with mid-priced CO detectors suitable for GA cabins and we’ve tested systems from Aithre and CO Guardian, to name two, with good results and with decent smartphone/tablet computer app interfaces.
The latest model comes from Garmin for interfacing with its panel-mounted avionics. Price at $550, the GCO 14 is simply a miniature sensor that lives behind the scenes, tied up in the bundle of harnesses that connect to the current touchscreen GTN Xi GPS navigators and also the GI 275’s electronic flight display HSI and MFD configurations, plus it can display on the Garmin retrofit TXi displays through the GPS navigator’s data stream.
It meets the FAA’s TSO-C48A spec for use in certified aircraft and like the majority of CO sensors has a useful life of 10 years before requiring recertification.
Installation is simple and the standalone sensor is always working behind the scenes when the power is on. It’s designed to mount to a cable harness using lacing cord or zip ties, or by tying it to the back of a D-sub connector. It’s small—measuring 1.50 inches long by 1.20 inches wide by 0.90 inches high—and weighs 1.0 ounces. It has miniscule current draw at 2 mA. Maintenance of the GCO 14 is “on condition” only, and a system message displays on the host LRU when the GCO 14 is 30 days from expiration. The message continues until the GCO 14 sensor is replaced.
Proactive alerting
The GCO sensor has preset alert thresholds and the user can also set a custom advisory for CO levels and alert times in dedicated CO fields on the display.
There’s also useful trend monitoring where the data can be added to the flight log so you can view it on the Garmin Pilot smartphone app.
Visit www.garmin.com.