Avionics News May 2013 - 71

Advertisers Index
Aero Standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Aircell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

interpretation of the data on the
weather screen.”
From the pilot’s perspective,
one of the big changes has been
the removal of the antenna’s
manual tilt control. “We’ve taken
the tilt control away because, we
know from talking to pilots and
the analysis of many (weatherrelated) accidents, many of them
really don’t know how to use it to
optimally find the most reflective
part of the storm cell,” he said.
“We simplified the system by
having an ‘Auto Mode.’ Simply,
it automatically gives you the
best view of the weather that is
associated with the aircraft’s flight
path.”
Before you get all worked up,
Dr. Khatwa said that the system
does have a ‘Manual Mode’
enabling crews to perform detailed
storm-cell analysis along their
path. “If you are at FL180 and
want to climb to FL310, you can
see what the weather is at the
different flight levels along the
path,” he said.
Rockwell Collins’ MultiScan
is another prime example of
the new, high-end “automatic”
radars. “Antenna controls, gain
management, along with the
removal and analysis of ground
clutter returns have always been
a challenge for pilots under highworkload conditions,” Robertson
said. “Sorting ground clutter has
always been especially difficult to
do manually. It’s a lot of work and
takes a lot of skilled judgment.
Now it’s all done automatically.”
“I can train a pilot to use this
system in 15 minutes,” Dr. Khatwa
said. “The pilot operating manual
has six pages in that section.
It’s truly a task-oriented display

design. We’ve really focused on
eliminating or minimizing the
operational problems found with
the older technology systems.”
While it may seem that
automated technology is going
to replace training, the fact is it
won’t be – at least not for general
aviation or business aviation –
anytime soon. As you can well
imagine, the cost of these new
capabilities is still quite high,
which means aircraft and radar
system manufacturers have to
take a long, hard look at what
capabilities they “trickle down” to
smaller classes of aircraft.
“As busses get faster and
memory gets cheaper, we have
the opportunity to take some
of the things we are doing for
the upper end of the market and
bring them into the business and
general aviation markets,” stated
Joe Gallo, principle marketing
manager of avionics/flight
controls, for Rockwell Collins.
“We don’t want to try and give
them something they don’t need.”
While it may seem that pilots
“need” every option and capability
they can get, it’s not always the
case. There’s the ever-present
cost/value equation. Pour on
too much gravy, and an original
equipment manufacturer could
easily price the unit right out of
the market, especially when it
comes to aftermarket upgrades.
“What capabilities do they
really need is the question,” Gallo
said. “If they’re flying shorter
distances at lower speeds, they
don’t need capabilities like 300
nautical mile range. But they
do need something close in, and
Continued on following page

Aircraft Electronics Association. . . . 44, 83
Astronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
ATEQ-Omicron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
AVweb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Becker Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Cal Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Carpenter Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Dallas Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC
Delcourt Aviation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Device Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Duncan Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
EDMO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC
Express Calibration Services . . . . . . . . 83
Flight Display Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Flying Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Garmin International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Georgetown Instrument Services . . . . . 58
GlobalParts.aero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
L-3 Avionics Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Mid-Continent Instruments & Avionics. . . . . . 5
Millennium International . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Northeast Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Pacific Southwest Instruments . . . . . . IBC
ProCal Laboratories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sun Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Tech-Aid Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
TGH Aviation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Tri-Star Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Universal Avionics Systems Corp. . . . . 39
Western Jet Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

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Avionics News May 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News May 2013
