Panel Integration

The E3X is built to sit in a panel beside other avionics and behave the way the real unit does when coupled to them.

External IFR navigators

Couple the E3X to a GTN- or GNS-class navigator (RealityXP GTN or GNS, TDS GTNxi, or X-Plane’s native FMS). It then mirrors the navigator’s complete flight plan, including procedures, transitions, and the missed approach. The pilot loads procedures on the navigator; the E3X displays and follows the route.

You need to declare a navigator in the aircraft’s e3x.json before the E3X offers it as a flight-plan source. Declare it on the Config page’s LRUs (line-replaceable units) tab (Menu → Setup → Config, Navigator 1 and 2) or in the file.

You declare the box (GNS 430W, GTN 750, G1000, …), not the software. A RealityXP or TDS unit of the same model, or failing that the same family, running in the sim takes the declared slot. With no add-on behind it, the slot follows X-Plane’s own plan: unit 1 the pilot’s, unit 2 the copilot’s. The E3X does not couple to an add-on that is running but not declared.

Radio control enables

Tell the E3X exactly which radios live in your panel, so it only shows and drives the ones that are physically there. Open the page in the E3X itself: Menu → Setup → Config, Radios tab.

There are six independent on/off enables, all on by default:

• COM 1 / COM 2 — the comm transceivers: their frequency fields, standby swap, and the CNS (communication, navigation, surveillance) bar’s COM cells.
• NAV 1 / NAV 2 — the VOR/LOC receivers: their frequency fields and the VLOC CDI sources the course needle can select.
• Audio panel — the audio-panel controls (mic/monitor selection) surfaced from the E3X.
• Transponder — the XPDR code entry, mode control, and ident.

Turning an enable off takes that radio out of the E3X everywhere at once. Its CNS cell, its frequency-load targets, and (for NAV) its CDI and bearing-pointer sources disappear. Its Main Menu tile and Data Bar Setup rows stay in place but gray out. The display then matches a panel that does not carry it, exactly as the real unit’s configuration behaves. Leave an enable on only when a corresponding radio is present in the sim/panel.

The choices are per aircraft. The E3X writes them to the aircraft’s e3x.json (its radios block) the moment you change them, and they come back with that aircraft.

Radio enables are independent of the data your charts and maps use. You manage that data separately in Menu → Setup → Databases (see the data packs guide).

Autopilot

See the AFCS guide for hybrid native-AP coupling.