AVIDYNE TEACHES LEGACY COCKPITS NEW TRICKS

Story by – Scott M. Spangler

Source: AVIONICS NEWS, October 2019

In all things, progress's inescapable traveling partner is the chronological depreciation of capabilities. Just look at the avionics in legacy Part 25 business jets. When they rolled off the production line, their cockpits were filled with, what was at the time, the latest and greatest technology available.

These systems are now a generation or two behind today's latest and greatest technologies. Avionics upgrades are, of course, available, but for many legacy installations, their cost often doesn't fare well in the return on investment equation.

Acknowledging that these jets start getting old after 10 years, Avidyne identified a new market.

Today, said CEO Dan Schwinn, “a 15-yearold jet will not have an integrated avionics system because they did not exist” when those airplanes made their way down the production line. This lack of integration opens the door to economically updating their capabilities. For jets made today, this won't be true 15 years from now, according to Tom Harper, director of marketing. Jets with integrated flight decks will face a more-challenging scenario.

When they get sold to a new owner who wants to update their avionics that take full advantage of any new operational capabilities that make flying more safe, efficient and economical, they have one option. “They go back to the OEM and ask, 'What are you going to do for me?' Hopefully, they get the right answer, but that answer might not be at the right price.” Regardless of a jet's age, the reality is the same, Harper added. In round numbers, when jets are around 15 years old, “those airplanes will be worth 15% of what they cost new,” he said.

An avionics upgrade that costs $500,000 will not fly with those who own jets worth only two or three times that amount. “It will be interesting to see how the OEMs adapt to that. For now, it is a huge opportunity for us.” These older jets may have EFIS and anintegrated autopilot but not a fully integrated flight deck, Schwinn explained, “so you can change out the CNS (communication, navigation, and surveillance; aka transponder) package with (Avidyne's IFD 5-series FMS navigators), which has a whole bunch more functionality, and get another decade out of the airplane.” The legacy avionics are capable of the desired result, Schwinn noted.

For example, autopilot flight down to ILS minimums. The challenge was integrating the new component that, in effect, told the legacy system how to perform modern tricks such as flying LPV approaches. On the surface, it sounds simple, but swapping one box for another is like traveling to a land where everyone speaks a different language.

The newcomer is “presenting information they've never gotten before,” Schwinn said, so that information must be in a language “they are used to so they can do the right thing with it.” Just to make the challenge more interesting, Avidyne wanted to integrate the IFDs directly, without the need of a “third-party happy box,” Harper said, or requiring the owner to send the jet's legacy avionics units back to the manufacturer for modifications or updates.

All the new capabilities are “all internal and don't affect the operation of the aircraft.” GLAS – the GPS Legacy Aviation System – is the key to teaching legacy avionics new tricks. This software protocol speaks the legacy languages in the Collins Pro Line 21 and the FGC-3000 Digital Flight Control System. GLAS also interfaces directly with the Honeywell legacy EFIS systems and Primus 1000, as well as Sperry SPX500-equipped aircraft. Counting the number of airplanes in which these systems are installed, “they represent more than 9,000 tails that are eligible for the upgrade,” said Dave Miner, Avidyne's general manager for business aviation. “Not being a software guy, I can say (GLAS) was an easy upgrade,” Miner said. “We just changed a bunch of ones and zeros.

In reality, it wasn't complicated, but it was challenging, and it involved a lot of aircraft testing to earn the TSO that gives the software its pedigree.” Speaking the legacy system's language is just part of the challenge. Approved flight manual supplements must explain the new capabilities and flight procedures, Schwinn noted, and the right annunciations must tell the pilots when the jet is doing something it has never done before.

While the airplane thinks it is flying an ILS, the annunciation tells the pilots that the avionics is flying an LPV approach. Avidyne's STC upgrade includes a variety of annunciators that are determined by the legacy system. “Basic GPS annunciation is in the pilot's field of view,” Miner said. “APCH 1, APCH 2, Waypoint 1, Waypoint 2, Integrity 1, and Integrity 2. When going from a single FMS airplane to a dual FMS airplane, we needed to differentiate which FMS was giving you a message.” In dual FMS airplanes, the CJ1+, and CJ2+, and CJ3, Avidyne added a control annunciator that is calls APR+B. “If you want to use FMS 2 (our IFD545, a GPSonly IFD550), the pilot leaves the switch in Auto.

With the switch off, it is a single FMS airplane,” Miner said. The Cessna CitationJet 525/A is the launch airframe for Avidyne's IFD 5-series FMS navigator retrofit program. Following closely behind are STCs for the CJ1+, CJ2+, and CJ3. In addition to giving these jets new capabilities, it surmounts the economic hurdle, Harper added. In most cases, upgrading a pre- WAAS flight management system in a Part 25 business jet will set owners back six figures.

Installing the IFD550/545-combination provides all of the WAAS functionality and then some with money left over. “Airplanes like the Cessna CJ never get synthetic vision unless you replace the flight deck, but the (return on investment) is not worth it,” Harper said. And with Part 25 airplanes, “you can only do what the airframe and

avionics OEMs say you can do. It is economics. Manufacturers are in the business of selling new airplanes and avionics.” In the process, “lots of times, you'll see orphaned flight decks.” With the IFD550 STC, legacies and orphans can again be a robust, NextGen system. Their capabilities include a hybrid-touch FMS, autopilot-coupled LPV approaches, synthetic vision of nearby terrain, obstacles, and traffic, electronic charts, and wireless connectivity that communicates with Avidyne's IFD100 iPad app as well as a number of third-party apps like ForeFlight. For ADS-B compliance, the option is a remote-mount dual Avidyne SkyTrax 322 or panel-mount SkyTrax 340 Mode S transponder.

The jet's existing primary flight and multifunction screens display all the navigation, communication and GPS functions, including LPV and ILS functions. The IFD550's screen displays electronic approach charts, synthetic vision, flight plan data with or without maps, traffic, and ADS-B weather.

Maps can also display realtime fuel totalization range rings. When considering a decade extension of a jet's operational service life in the NextGen environment, Miner said that owners always ask, “How long to get it done? Every installation is different, so the extremely generic answer is that most shops are accomplishing this in well under 200 hours of labor.”

“WHILE THE AIRPLANE THINKS IT IS FLYING AN ILS, THE ANNUNCIATION TELLS THE PILOTS THAT THE AVIONICS IS FLYING AN LPV APPROACH.”

– DAN SCHWINN, Avidyne CEO