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The Aviation Panel at the bottom of the screen displays important information about your flight. (PDA)
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Beneath the aviation panel there is a button that cycles through EFIS (Electronic Flight Information System), compass and none. The EFIS display will show a compass arc across the screen, turning it to reflect your heading. When a flight plan is loaded, the number at the top of the EFIS arc will be the bearing to the next waypoint in the flight plan.
Value Examples:
The Aviation Panel fields display the GPS information and computed values for a flight. Here are explanations of the fields with some example values:
ALT/ft 8000 shows the GPS altitude. GPS altitude tends to be more consistent than accurate. Check the GPS altitude on the ground at your airport. Click on the ALT/ft label to bring up the GPS Altitude adjustment dialog.
ATE 1h2 is Actual Time En route. When you click Aviation > Start Trip, there is an option to Reset ATE. Check that box at the beginning of a flight and do not check it when you make changes or replace your flight plan en route.
SPD/kts 85.5 is the ground speed in nautical miles per hour. Compare this to your calibrated airspeed to see the effect of the wind. The Time To Go is computed with this instantaneous value, which can be misleading if the flight will change course or encounter changing wind speed and direction.
DTG/nm 13.6/272.0 is the Distance To Go in nautical miles or feet for the current leg / rest of trip ( the '/' is a delimiter, not division). The rest of the trip includes the current leg.
TTG 6m / 2h0 is the Time To Go for the current leg / rest of trip. The ATE plus TTG rest of trip add up to the fuel endurance. That must not exceed your original fuel endurance minus required reserves. Be careful not to reset the ATE if you use it for this calculation.
TRK:BRG 273:274 are the Track of the plane and its bearing to the next fix. When the track and the bearing are the same and the XTK is small, you are on course. If you set your Directional Gyro (DG) to the TRK rather than to your magnetic compass, the wind correction angle difference will be between the DG and the Mag Compass. The TRK and DG will agree, requiring occasional adjustments for gyro precession or wind changes. A 180 degree course reversal would reverse the wind correction angle requiring an adjustment to the DG to match the TRK again.
XTK/ft L53 is the Cross Track deviation. This can be left or right (L or R) and in ft or nm. Use the TRK and BRG with the XTK to plan a course correction. The cross track is the direction and distance you are from the course. If you are 1000 ft Left, you should turn slightly to the Right. This can become a large number if you are taking a shortcut to go direct to the following fix by skipping the current fix. The XTK value can become a couple of miles. The TRK:BRG will be precise. If you update the flight path with the current position and delete the bypassed fixes, the XTK will reflect the new course.
The unlabelled number in the lower right corner is the number of GPS satellites in view. At least 4 must be in view to establish the GPS position.