FLYING Editors’ Choice Award for 2009

We were recently bestowed the Editors’ Choice Award for the Entegra Release 9 avionics by FLYING Magazine.  This is the third time that Avidyne has won an Editors’ Choice Award for innovations in avionics for general aviation.  2009 was one of the most exciting years in Avidyne’s history and I wanted to reflect briefly on what we accomplished last year.

I think the most important accomplishment for 2009 was our continued focus on our customers.  In mid 2008 we committed ourselves to fixing customer service and improving the quality of our products.   Last year was about proving ourselves every day to our customers and creating an environment of continuous improvement.  We weren’t perfect, but we are proud of the difference we have made in our effort to minimize the downtime of our customers.  This will continue to be a focus in 2010 and we have already made some significant improvements in our call workflow to reduce average resolution times from 2 hours to 20 minutes!

Avidyne had a busy year for product introductions.  The Entegra Release 9 upgrade leveraged everything we learned from our first generation Entegra products and developed these innovations on the most advanced avionics architecture that you can find in light general aviation.  We committed to the market in mid ’08 that we would certify the product within a year and we actually beat that target by several months.  This was a tremendous accomplishment by the entire company.  We also launched our family of DFC autopilots that can upgrade the existing STEC 55X by swapping the AP flight computer and integrating with the digital ADAHRS in the Entegra avionics system.  The EX600 was launched in late 2009 and improved upon the industry leading EX500 MFD and once again delivered new and innovative features to the multifunction cockpit display.  Like all of our products, these innovative features were based on a real understanding of how pilots actually use our products.  In a year that has been dubbed one of the most difficult in general aviation we were proud to deliver multiple, innovative products to the market.

As a business, we had to transform ourselves with the changing market conditions.  Providing high value upgrades to our existing customers is a new and growing segment of our business and one that we feel is appropriate for the economic conditions.  More of our customers are keeping their current airplanes, and we are providing them options to improve the safety, utility and simplicity of their aircraft.  Our customers have responded to this with over 100 R9 upgrades ordered in 2009 which on an annualized basis was 20% of the total new piston aircraft delivered worldwide in 2009.  We are proud of our ability to adjust quickly to the needs of our customers and we will continue to do so in 2010.