(2008) Service Advisory 0829 Rev A: During approach at some specified airports, the SVT runway will appear higher or lower than the actual runway

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

All Garmin Integrated Flight Deck systems with GDU Software v9.00 to v9.03 and Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT) installed are affected.

ISSUE

During an approach to an airport where field elevation is significantly different than the runway elevation, the SVT runway on the PFD will be depicted higher or lower than the actual runway.

DESCRIPTION

SVT runways are depicted on the PFD at field elevation. Some runways (listed in Table 1) differ from their associated field elevations by more than 100 feet. When making an approach at one of these airports, the runway on the PFD will be depicted higher or lower than the actual runway. The magnitude of the depiction discrepancy varies according to the distance to the runway (becomes more apparent as the aircraft moves closer to the airport) and the total difference between field elevation and the runway elevation.

SVT is not intended to be relied upon exclusively for aircraft control, navigation, obstacle avoidance, terrain avoidance, or to avoid other aircraft. Navigation must not be predicated solely upon the use of TAWS terrain or obstacle data displayed by the SVS.

RESOLUTION

There are 135 runways worldwide with elevations that differ by more than 100 feet from their respective field elevations.  These runways and associated airport information are listed in Table 1.

Do not use the SVT runway depiction or FPM (flight path marker) to orient the aircraft to the runway (on approach) when less than 1 nautical mile from the runways listed in Table 1.

The SVT runway display operation on the PFD will be improved in GDU Software v9.04 and later versions.