AVIONICS FLIGHT TEST

Bendix/King’s KLN 94With crisp color and simple operating logic,KLN89B owners finally have a mid-pricedcolor option.

by Larry Anglisano

Just as buyers awaiting new-genera-tion navigators from Honeywell Ben-dix/King had all but given up thecompany for dead, the long-awaitedKLN94 color GPS has finally arrived.

Cleverly, Bendix/King has designedthis as a pin-for-pin, slide-it-in re-placement for the top-selling KLN89B,a sweet deal for owners who waitedpatiently rather than opting for BrandB’s color mapcomm. (Okay, we’ll sayit; many of ‘em dumped the 89B forGarmin’s GNS430.)

Was it worth the wait? Generally, wewould say yes. Although it’s not nec-essarily an over-the-fence homer, wethink the KLN94 is a credible prod-uct, with definite improvements over

plain display and its operating logic,although not difficult, lacked theGNS430’s panache.

No question the GNS430 is a toughact to follow. Still, for the aircraft thathas a well-equipped stack of newergeneration Bendix/King SilverCrown avionics, the KLN94 will filla market void. Also, it’s the only color,standalone GPS navigator withoutcomm and VOR nav function in itssize class. (Garmin’s GPS400 andGNC420 are the same size as the 430.)

Hardware At first glance the KLN94 looks like aKLN89B – a reworked KLN89B. Thefront-loading datacard is on the farleft of the faceplate. Full aeronauticaland airspace data as well as carto-graphic information such as rivers,roads, lakes, cities and towers areincluded on the card.

There’s a change in the mechanics ofdatacard function from previous Ben-dix/King navigators: The aeronauti-cal data is initially contained in thesmall datacard but when inserted inthe unit, data is then stored in a mem-ory area within the receiver.

This action will be apparent when auser changes the datacard as a good10 to 15 minutes is required for theloading to complete. Not a big deal,but a surprise. The KLN94 utilizesthe proven Bendix/King eight-chan-

the 89B and some operating featuresthat match the Garmin line.

Sweetening the deal earlier in the yearfor some owners, Bendix/King hadan attractive trade-up program, al-lowing KLN89B owners to buy aKLN94 for $2200 exchange. This hasbeen a popular deal for new Cessnaowners whose stacks are loaded withnew Silver Crown Plus gear.

Third GenThe KLN94 is Bendix/King’s thirdrun at the IFR-approved GPS market,the first being the high-pricedKLN90B, followed by the KLN89B,which was a mid-market sales smash.

The KLN89B, launched as part of thenewly designed Silver Crown Plusline, was easier to operate than the90B and although its gas dischargedot-matrix type rudimentary movingmap depicted special use airspace, itwasn’t nearly as crisp as the 90B’sCRT.

Nonetheless, the89B had decentoperating logicand an attractiveprice. For a periodin 1996 and 1997,this box kicked buttsaleswise, thanksto perfect timing.But then Bendix/King entered itssomnambulantphase, with no newproducts emergingfor many months.Garmin and Apol-lo quickly filled thegap. By then, theKLN89B was stale,mainly due to its

The KLN94 nicely matches Bendix/King’s new Silver Crown Plus lineand is a decent fit with the older KX155 line, too.

• Screen definition andcolor quality is well up toGarmin, Apollo standards.

• Menu-driven logic is much im-proved over KLN89B, especiallyrange toggles.

• Mid-price—$4152 list—repre-sents color upgrade withoutspending a bundle.

• Scaling map is easy, butsurface detail tends to-ward clutter due to coarserendering.

• Some may find the screen sizestingy compared to MFDs costingonly a little more.

Checklist

Reprinted from January 2001...

nel receiver fed by the active KA92teardrop-style GPS antenna. Weightwith mounting hardware is just over3.5 pounds.

This is a TSO C129a navigator ap-proved for enroute, terminal and ap-proach operations. It is not WAAScompatible, but Bendix/King sayssome upgrade path will be available,either a board change or trade-in ofsome sort. Given the uncertain stateof WAAS, we simply can’t see whyany owner should worry about theupgrade.

Installation hardware, includingmating connectors, is of high quality,as Bendix/King stuff usually is.Forced air cooling from an avionicsfan is essential, however. The 240-pixel wide by 80-pixel high resolu-tion color LCD screen is crisp andcomfortable to view in almost all light-ing conditions. Very easy on the eyes.

We also noticed that it seems to reachfull brightness more quickly than dothe Garmin units after a night of coldsoaking on the ramp. In very coldconditions, a warm-up page appearsadvising how long the screen needsto reach normal temp. Don’t want towait? Hit the CLR button to bypass it,but be prepared for sluggish screenoperation until the display warmsup.

Since the unit is smaller than theGarmin competition, so is the displayarea, slightly. We found the depiction

of surface detail somewhat coarserthan the Garmin variety, thus drillingin the scale to see things more clearlyis more frequent.

Controls feel robust and durable andthe faceplate matches nicely with therest of the Silver Crown line. The unitis happy with operating voltages from13.5 to 27.5 volts, without the need forboost converters; a nice think-throughon Bendix/King’s part.

Overall dimensions are 6.31 incheswide and 2 inches high, making it aneasy replacement for virtually all old-er navigators. As noted, the KLN94 isa direct pin-for-pin replacement forthe KLN89B. Slide the KLN89B out;slide the KLN94 in without any wir-ing modifications. Well, almost.

The KLN94 displays the annuncia-tion required for IFR GPS certificationwithout the need for remote annunci-ation. You will, however, need remoteswitching if you wish to couple anHSI to both the 94 and a navcomm.Garmins do this in the box, since ithas an onboard nav receiver. TheKLN94 doesn’t.

Also, the GPS approach switch/an-nunciator allows display and controlof the KLN94 approach modes. So,we recommend a remote annunicatorfor primary use while the GPS dis-play conveniently backs up thisswitching.

The Mid-Continent Instruments

MD41 series ACU is the switch ofchoice, with a high-end look and su-perb sunlight readability. Eaton re-mote switch/annunciators are analternative if the local FSDO agreesthat no ACU is needed.

For IFR approval, a new flight man-ual supplement will have to be pro-vided as well as all the required flighttesting for TSO C129 (A1) approval.Minor stuff.

Smart BoxThese days, a panel without somecolor display looks drab so theKLN94’s screen will give any air-plane an immediate state-of-the-artlook without a major GNS430 up-grade.

In its latest equipment, Garmin nicelyintegrated the nav and comm func-tions and Bendix/King has followedsuit. The so-called Quick Tune optionallows the KLN94 to talk, via RS232,with KX165A/155A navcomms, au-totuning nav and comm frequenciesaccording to aircraft position andselected approach.

If you have a KLN89B and want thisfeature, however, expect some addi-tional costs as the shop will have todig into the wiring to add the RS232interface. We think it’s worth thenominal cost.

The box will send nav and commfrequencies to—count ‘em—four on-

Dedicatedprocedure key

Front loadingdatacard

Data jack

Power/manualbrightness

OBS for manualsequencing

Messageannunciation

Baro entry,VNAV

Nearest airport,VOR, intersections Concentric knobs for

data scrolling, pagenavigation.

Cursor keyfor editingfields.

Range toggle;instant access to map

Menu call-upkey

On-screenannunciation

KLN94 Keys, Knobs and Screen

board radios capable of receiving thedata. But to use the feature, you’llneed the newer A-series Bendix/Kingline, not the old 155s.

On screen annunciation is done onthe far right of the display page begin-ning with WPT (waypoint alert) whenapproaching the active waypoint.Following underneath is the M alert,which will flash to prompt the userfor new messages. VTF—for vector tofinal—indicates that this mode isarmed. It goes to green when activat-ed.

Lines four and five in vertical sequenceindicate APR for Approach then ARMor ACTV for approach activation. LEGor OBS is displayed at the bottom ofthe screen.

These annunciations are handy tohave on screen, but again should notbe the main source of annunciation,in our view, since the navigator can,in some instances, not be in primeviewing level in the stack. Most FS-DO’s want the annunication within

the pilot’s instrument scan.Unit power is cycled via the rotaryknob, which does double duty as adisplay brightness control. There’s a1/8-inch datajack built into the facefor uploading database informationwithout pulling the card, for revisingdata fetched off of Bendix/King’s Website.

New to the KLN94 is the PROC but-ton, whose main function is for initi-ating and loading an approach andalso accessing arrival and departureprocedures. The popular vector-to-final command is also accessed here.

Garmin scored big points with thePROC key on the GNS430 and right-fully so. It eliminates the guessworkwhen loading an approach, as theuser is prompted through a series ofsubmenus in the procedures-loadingroutine.

Without the procedure menu, there’sa tendency to botch the initial stagesof the load. We like to compare thesoftware to the early days of DOS and

Apple’s Mac software. The Mac wasannoyingly cute but you could at leastunderstand it, while DOS was dense,illogical and irritating. (Nice to seeHoneywell/Bendix/King do its mar-ket research.) Function buttons on theKLN94 are similar to the KLN89B, inthat keys are sequentially laid out onthe bottom of the faceplate from left toright: MSG allows the box to commu-nicate any commands or warnings;

the OBS button switchesfrom lrg to OBS mode;NRST button for nearestairports, VORs, NDBs,intersections; D for load-ing a fix and CLR andENT for obvious pur-poses.

New is a range up/down toggle keythat selects the moving map scale, atask far from intuitive on the 89B. Atany time, the user can call up the mappage by simply punching the rangekey. Map set-up functions (north ortrack up, display settings, land andairdata) are performed by pressingthe tiny MEN key, located under therange toggle. A designated CRSR keyquickly allows editing of informationin all modes of operation.

The usual outer and inner rotaryknobs allow scrolling from page topage within the main menus and forediting alphanumeric or other call-up information. It’s relatively easy tomove from page to page without con-fusion and it’s reassuring to have therange key bring up the map as thedefault quickly. The ALT button isused to select two altitude pages thatcontain barometric pressure settingsand VNAV operation.

One nice feature carried over from the89B is electrical bus monitoring. Itallows the pilot to view supplied volt-age accurate to tenths of a volt. Volt-age alerting allows you to select aspecified alert voltage, in case of analternator failure. So that this alertingdoesn’t get annoying with voltagetransients, low-voltage conditions aretimed with selectable alert delays.

And while on the topic of systemconfiguration, we found set-up to bestraightforward. Never underesti-mate the time your shop spends onpost-installation set-up and configu-ration. This is one of the most crucial

We wish we could say the KLN94makes the buying decision easier,but it doesn’t. Even the owner of aKLN89B will have to ask whetherit’s better to swap that unit out for aKLN94 or shop for a mid-priced MFDand keep the 89B in the panel to runthe larger display.

There are pros and cons for eachside of this buying decision. Favor-ing the straight swap is price. TheKLN89B may yield $1500 to $2000in trade value, so a painless andquick conversion to color could costas little as $3000 to $3500.

The downside of that decision iswhat you see is what you get. TheKLN94 has no comm or VHF navcapability and isn’t currently WAAScompatible, if you think that mat-ters. (We don’t.)

Nor will it accept radar, Stormscope,datalink or other sensors in its cur-rent configuration. The Garminmodels do, of course, accept mostexternal sensors.

Considering the MFD argument,

Bendix/King’s own KMD 150, at$3995 without GPS, comes close tothe KLN94 swap-out numbers andyields a large color map with moredisplay options than the KLN94—or even the Garmins—now have.

Further, it’s generally accepted thatMFDs have more head room thanall-in-one naviga-tors or mapcomms.They have morereal estate for dis-play and mosthave been de-signed from theground up withupgradeability inmind.

Of late, the market trend has been abox for every purpose, the theoryevidently being that giving buyers avast range of price and capabilitychoices will keep them from run-ning off to the competition. Unfortu-nately, there may be one unintendedeffect: With such a jumble of likechoices, more owners perch on thefence awaiting the arrival of yet theperfect box and the perfect price.

Big Color or Little Color?

given, but the active waypoint airportis at the top of the list.)

You’re then prompted with a list ofselectable approaches for that airport,followed by selection of an IAF orvectors. You’re then asked if youwant to add this to the current flight-plan. There’s almost zero chance forany confusion in this process.

Precision approaches are also load-able for monitoring purposes and theuser is warned of this before loading.The unit will, however, monitor anILS and quick tune the localizer fre-quency.

In general, we think users should becomfortable with the KLN94’s ap-proach operations, with a little prac-tice. Once the software is fine tuneda bit, we think this unit will be theequal of the Garmin offerings.

Other FeaturesAs do most late-generation naviga-tors, the KLN94 has fuel manage-ment. If it’s connected via RS232 witha compatible fuel flow computer, realtime fuel management is provided ona designated page based on rate offuel flow, groundspeed and distance.

Headwind and tailwind componentsare featured on a separate page,rounding out the full-featured E6Boptions.

The altitude alerting feature is handyif your airplane doesn’t otherwisehave some sort of alerter. The alertallows the user to select a target alti-tude, then issues an aural alarm ofthree chimes 1000 feet prior to, twochimes when reaching the selectedaltitude and four chimes when leav-ing this selected target. (The latestbaro setting is required for this towork properly.)

Chimes can be interfaced with theaudio system (if equipped with audioamplifier) through the cabin speakeror driven to a remote tone generator.

RecommendationsFirst, the bottom line. And the bottomline is: It’s about time. We’re weary ofanswering reader queries about theKLN94’s delay to market. Anotherfew months of delay and Bendix/King would have been a nominee forthe Terra-from-Trimble OrphanedOwners award. Frankly, after thelong delay, Bendix/King could havestumbled badly if the unit didn’t ap-proach Garmin’s GNS430 in overallvalue. In our view, it doesn’t stumbleand is worthy choice for the rightcrowd. The right crowd is all thosenew Cessnas with Silver Crown Plus,plus any airplane that has an exist-ing KLN89B—and that’s a lot of air-planes.

Beyond that, it’s more complex. TheKLN94 lists for $4152. Adding theindicators and wiring, figure on $5500to $6500 installed. Not a bad valueagainst the GPS-only Garmin 400 at$6795.

The Garmin is larger with a largerscreen but the KLN94 may fit wherethe Garmin won’t. Feature for feature,these two units are comparable, inour view. Neither one is a slam dunkwalkaway against the other.

This pricing makes the KLN94 com-petitive and a good value in our view.It also fills a market void as an easyupgrade for KLN89B owners.

With a long list of products sched-uled for introduction in the comingmonths, it’s clear that Bendix/King istrying to get back on track after a longsnooze. After wringing out the newlyintroduced KLN94, we think they’reoff to a good start.

Larry Anglisano is an Aviation Con-sumer avionics editor and a consultant forExxel Avionics in Hartford. Contact Hon-eywell/Bendix/King at One TechnologyCenter, 23500 W. 105th Street, M/D #45Olathe, KS 66061-1950 USA 913-712-2613 and www.bendixking.com

and often most time consuming stag-es of the installation. Our experiencewith the setup of the first KLN94s hasbeen painless. (Manufacturers takenote: If you want to annoy your deal-ers and have them not push yourproduct, make the set-up difficult.Previous Bendix/King navigatorshave been awkward to configure butthe KLN94 has corrected this short-coming.)

Approach OpsIn our view, the Garmin navigatorshave had a clear advantage in ap-proach operations. Garmin users likeprompting for approach selectionand initial fix choosing. As noted, theaddition of the PROC key to the KLN94brings this capability to the Bendix/King products.

Also, the Garmins automatically de-cide on their own whether to suspendsequencing when a procedure turn isrequired and helpfully prompt theuser by displaying suggested head-ings, including the depicted holdingpattern.

The KLN94 lacks this feature butwe’re told the pattern depiction willbe available in a future software up-grade. Manual OBS/Leg will remain,however. To its credit, the KLN94does a good job of alerting the pilot—“IF REQUIRED, SELECT OBS”—butit’s not fully automatic. It also promptsyou for the current baro setting.

As required by TSO, the KLN94 willnot automatically sequence to the nextwaypoint on the missed approach.The user must select this waypointand initiate navigation. By default,the unit nominates the first waypointof the published missed procedure.

Loading an approach is simple: Se-lect the APPROACH prompt underthe procedure menu, then select theapproach airport by selecting fromone of seven possible identifiers oredit your own identifier in a blankfield, then enter. (Closest airports are

Reprinted from Aviation Consumer Copyright © 2001 Belvoir Publications, Inc. Aviation Consumer is publishedmonthly (12 issues) by Belvoir Publications, Inc., 75 Holly Hill Lane, Box 2626, Greenwich, Conn. 06836-2626.800-829-9081. Subscriptions are $39 annually.