About Us

Our companyABOUT MGL Avionics

MGL Avionics’ mission is to provide top-performing flight instrumentation at all levels at affordable prices, with the express aim of helping to lower the overall cost of aircraft ownership and private flight.

Read an open letter from Rainier Lamers (CEO and chief design engineer) regarding the Enigma EFIS development by clicking here.

In the North America, our dedicated team has been distributing MGL Avionics products since the beginning. In business since 2000 as Rainbow Aircraft, Inc (dba MGL Avionics) in California, we strive to offer the best service and support of all MGL Avionics products.

We sell directly to the aircraft-building public, and offer customer support via phone and e-mail.
We offer full stock and warranty service and repairs of MGL Avionics products, directly from California. You don’t have to wait for products to be returned to the factory.
We handle a large network of OEM customers who supply our products with their aircraft.
We support an ever-growing list of avionics supply stores that carry our products.

Here is a question we get asked a lot…

“How are you able to give us all of this functionality for less than what others sell it for?”

Here is the answer…

Simply put, all the hardware, AND software (INCLUDING the proprietary Operating System) is designed in-house with no subcontracting or licensing fees required, thanks to the very fortunate skillset of the designers.

In detail:

All electronics hardware is designed in-house using the very latest available technology. Wide ranging experience and tight
software integration allows highly efficient electronics design.
Many parts are produced using high tech facilities in South Africa that rank amongst the top class in the World, but offer lower costs.
We have outstanding software development capabilities thanks to development of our own software development tools and compilers. This is further augmented by creation of our own custom operating systems from scratch. All of this combines to allow rapid application development with zero “3rd party” software bugs or issues slowing performance and extending development time.
Hardware and software development is fully merged and not treated as separate entities as is the industry norm. This leads to fast development and highly efficient products.
Low company operating costs, highly enthusiastic personnel all of which are directly and actively involved in all parts of the product development and production cycle.
Prices are low for the simple reason we WANT them to be low. We want our avionics to be affordable to anybody. In our opinion the time of high priced avionics is over. The primary question should be: What can it do and how well does it do it ?

The beginningsCOMPANY HISTORY

2001

The birth of MGL Avionics in South Africa

Rainier Lamers founds MGL Avionics in South Africa and comes out with a monochrome EFIS called the Ultra. It has primary flight, engine and fuel information and is one of the first such instruments on the market. At this time, Rainbow Aircraft, Inc. in California begins introducing MGL Avionics to the North American market.

2006

First Color EFIS - Enigma

The Enigma was one of the first color EFIS’s on the market that featured wireframe synthetic terrain and moving map GPS – before many competitors in the Experimental Avionics market.

2007

Large Screen EFIS's - Odyssey and Voyager

2007 saw the introduction of the Odyssey 10.4″ color EFIS and the addition of many new features and higher-resolution synthetic terrain and mapping. The Voyager 8.4″ EFIS followed shortly after in 2008.

2012

First Touchscreen EFIS on the market

In 2012 the iEFIS Touchscreen system was brought into existence and has remained to this day with multiple iterations, hardware upgrades and software upgrades. The iEFIS ecosystem has grown over the years to include many components and ancillary products.

2015

Radio Products

MGL Avionics introduces a new range of radio products that continue to expand.

2020

Michigan Avionics appointed as Exclusive North American Sales/Support

In order to continue to expand the reach of MGL Avionics products and server an ever-growing customer base, Michigan Avionics was appointed Exclusive North American Sales/Support.