I have to say that I`m very disappointed in the integration of the Honeywell Epic suite in the Sovereign. When being used to airline(Airbus), it feels very unfinished and not user friendly, like Cessna trying to play with the big boys but not having the knowhow with regards to working with Honeywell integrating the Epic suite.
Well they took an avionics suite that - apparently - works well in Falcons and Gulfstreams and then cut off arms and legs (e.g. Autothrottle).
Now we wonder why the child canīt really walk. Cessna did that to keep costs down. Integration? What a joke. Compare the Challenger 300 with the P21 and dark cockpit philosophy with the Sov. Both developed roughly at the same time. The Sov is a dinosaur.
But then the coupled approach issue has nothing to do with that I think. Honeywell has to test these things and I guess they haven't done that very well. Phase V brought us some improvement and some troubles we never had before, e.g. we have to load the charts with the pcmcia card removed and then have to load the files from the CD directly onto the card...that wasnīt the case with 4.2.
Its high time for a Sov+ . Honeywell wonīt learn their lesson, the last 3,5 yaers on the Sovereign showed me that.