The Air Manager G5 Avionics offers an alternative solution for adding the RealSimGear G5's to your home cockpit setup. RealSimGear does offer its own G5 Avionics Package. This package, however, is limited to use with X-Plane only. If you are using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 the Air Manager G5 Avionics is the only avionics solution for the platform at the present time.

The following setup article will guide you through the process of adding and configuring two RealSimGear G5 devices for use with Air Manager and applies to both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and X-Plane 11/12.

Before you can begin configuring the Air Manager G5's with the RealSimGear G5 hardware, you will need to purchase Air Manager Desktop and the Premium G5 Avionics from Sim Innovations, the developer of Air Manager.
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​Air Manager Desktop

Air Manager Premium G5 Panel

Begin by unpackaging your RealSimGear G5.
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​Each RealSimGear G5 Device will include:
​1x USB Type A to Type B cable

1x 12 volt 2.0 amp Power Supply (North American Plug Type)

1x Package of device mounting screws

Not included but required:

1x HDMI Cable (length and connection types will vary depending on your installation)

Optional Items:
​1x USB3.0 to Dual HDMI Adapter (to be used if you do not have enough HDMI ports on your PC to support the connections of your G5 devices.

1x Desktop Stand for dual G5 displays

Each RealSimGear G5 will include 3x self tapping screws to install the G5 into a RealSimGear stand or custom panel of your choice. Your custom mounting solution should be no thicker than 3.1mm

If attaching to a RealSimGear Desktop Stand, mount Each G5 using the included screws.

Once your G5's are mounted to their respective locations, do not plug them in yet as we will cover this in the upcoming section.

Before we can proceed with setting up and configuring the G5's you will need to purchase, install, and activate:
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​Air Manager Desktop v4.2 or greater
Air Manager Simulator Plugins

Air Manager Premium G5 Panel

Once this step has been completed you are now ready begin configuring the RealSimGear G5.

With Air Manager v4.2 and up, RealSimGear G5's can directly connect with the program, removing the need to install custom firmware that was required on previous versions of Air Manager. This makes installation faster and configuration of the G5 easier. The following steps should have your RealSimGear G5's running with Air Manager in a few minutes.

To simplify the installation and configuration of the G5's we will need to know which USB COM port each device is occupying. Before proceeding with the following steps, please unplug the USB connection from any other RealSimGear devices you may have as we want Air Manager to only see the G5's we connect and not all of the RealSimGear devices you may have.

1x HDMI Connection for the display

1x USB connection for device communication

1x 12v DC power connection.

Please start and allow Air Manager to fully load to the main configuration page. If this is your first installation of Air Manager you will not have any devices or custom panels listed other than a demo panel.

Select "RealSimGear device"

At this time the only RealSimGear Device you should have connected to your PC is the first G5. Please select the COM port assigned to this device:

Since the first G5 we are setting up will be used as the primary flight display (PFD) give this device a unique name such as "G5 PFD". This will make the device easier to edit in the future as we will be able to tell whether this is the PFD or HSI.
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Once you have named the device, select the plugin. For the Air Manager Premium G5 Panel, select "RealSimGear G5 for Sim Innovations G5"

Below the Device Plugin Selection will be a User properties dialog to set the G5 Device Number. By default all G5's will be numbered "1". You will only need to renumber the G5 device if you are adding a second G5 for the HSI.
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Device Numbering should follow:

1: for G5 PFD

2: for G5 HSI

With the first G5 added please proceed to configuring the instrument for the G5 before adding any addition G5 devices to Air Manager.

With our first G5 connected to Air Manager, we are now ready to configure the first device to use the Premium G5 Panel from Sim Innovations.

From the Panel submenu:
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Select the display you will be using for the G5 Avionics. In the example shown, the G5 display is the second display connected to the PC with a native resolution of 640x480.

Next, select the panel layout you want to use. In this case you must select "Single Garmin G5 for RSG Hardware", then click Add.

Once this is completed you will see "Garmin G5" added to the panel selector stack on the left side of the Air Manager interface:
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Click on the "Garmin G5" panel

Under "General settings", rename the panel from "Garmin G5" to Garmin G5 PFD. This will help us identify the individual G5 instruments in the future.

The remaining options in the base instrument will not be used.

At this point in time, the individual G5 is configured for use. If you are running a dual G5 setup, repeat the above steps including connecting the second G5 to your PC.

Before we can finally move into the simulator and use our G5 displays we must configure a few options for each display. The following documentation covers configuring the G5's in a dual G5 setup, however, the process will be similar if you are using a single G5.

Click the right pointing arrow next to the G5 Panel in the Panel Selection menu

This will open the "Generic - Garmin G5" options menu so you can configure the settings.

Attitude Indicator: Single Cue
​Operational Mode: Double (set this to single if you only have one G5)

Initial Function: PFD (this determines what is displayed when the device starts PFD or HSI)

G5 Device Number: 1 (Keep this set to 1 for PFD's)

Airspeed: KTS (knots Indicated) This can also be set to MPH or KPH

Barometric Unit: Inch of Mercury (imperial) This can also be set to Mb or Hpa

Temperature Unit: Celsius This can also be set to Fahrenheit

Vertical Speed Scale: Sets the limit of the VS Indicator, adjust to your specific aircraft

OAT Probe: Checked

Rate of Turn Triangles: Checked

GPSS: Unchecked (for use with MSFS 2020)

Autopilot: Checked (will give AP annunciations at the top of the PFD

Rotary Encoder Type: Type_1_DETENT_PER_PULSE (Do not edit)

RealSimGear G5 Bezel: Checked

RealSimGear G5 Bezel Channel: A (unused for v4.2 of AirManager)

Encoder Acceleration: 1.5 (Do not edit)

Speed Markers:

The speed markers can be configured however you wish. The ideal configuration depends on what aircraft you are using with the G5's and what that aircraft has for speed limits and/or speed bugs.
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Hardware:

The items in the hardware settings are not used. Please leave these set to the default values of: None

Click the right pointing arrow next to the G5 Panel in the Panel Selection menu

This will open the "Generic - Garmin G5" options menu so you can configure the settings.

Attitude Indicator: Single Cue
​Operational Mode: Double (set this to single if you only have one G5)

Initial Function: HSI (this determines what is displayed when the device starts PFD or HSI)

G5 Device Number: 2 (Keep this set to 2 for HSI's)

Airspeed: KTS (knots Indicated) This can also be set to MPH or KPH

Barometric Unit: Inch of Mercury (imperial) This can also be set to Mb or Hpa

Temperature Unit: Celsius This can also be set to Fahrenheit

Vertical Speed Scale: Sets the limit of the VS Indicator, adjust to your specific aircraft

OAT Probe: Checked

Rate of Turn Triangles: Checked

GPSS: Unchecked (for use with MSFS 2020)

Autopilot: Checked (will give AP annunciations at the top of the PFD

Rotary Encoder Type: Type_1_DETENT_PER_PULSE (Do not edit)

RealSimGear G5 Bezel: Checked

RealSimGear G5 Bezel Channel: A (unused for v4.2 of AirManager)

Encoder Acceleration: 1.5 (Do not edit)

Speed Markers:

The speed markers can be configured however you wish. The ideal configuration depends on what aircraft you are using with the G5's and what that aircraft has for speed limits and/or speed bugs. Ideally you will set the HSI Speed Markers to the same values as the PFD, this way in the event that you switch the HSI to PFD mode, the speed markers will match.
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Hardware:

The items in the hardware settings are not used. Please leave these set to the default values of: None

The following information will help you solve some common problems that may occur with the Air Manager G5 Avionics and RealSimGear G5 Hardware.

Please check each G5's start mode with Air Manager. If you have the panel set to "Start the panel manually" you will need to enable the panel from the "Show/Hide Icons" (Lightbulb) at the top menu bar of Air Manager. RealSimGear recommends setting the panels to: "Start automatically when starting Air Manager"

This generally indicates that the USB COM port has changed for each G5. Windows will renumber COM ports automatically from time to time, depending on what is connected. If you keep your G5's connected to USB all the time this generally will not happen. However, if you put your G5 panels away for a time this may occur. The best thing to do in this case is connect your G5's to your PC first (one at a time) and reassign the COM ports in Air Manager.

Additionally: Air Manager must be started before your simulator of choice. This will allow Air Manager to capture the USB COM port and prevent the RealSimGear Device Interface/Plugin from capturing the device. If you start your simulator before Air Manager, you will need to close the simulator and restart.

If you disconnect you G5's from the HDMI display cables. Windows may re-order the displays on the next connection. When this happens your initial display configuration for the G5's may change. The best practice is to use the identify feature of Windows Display Properties to determine the display number and assign that to each display in Air Manager.

This will happen if you have not set the device number correctly for the PFD and HSI. In the avionics configuration, make sure your device numbers match the assignments you set for the devices in the initial configuration.

If you need further assistance in configuring your G5's with Air Manager, we are here to help! Please send us an email to support@realsimgear.com and we will be happy to assist you.