Avionics News October 2014 - 22

THE KING IS BACK

Continued from page 21

market.	It's	a	real	advantage	to	the	turboprop	owner.	We've	
done	the	R&D.	We've	done	all	the	testing.	We	have	accumulated	millions	of	hours	of	flight	time	on	these	systems."
Dykmann	noted,	"We	have	the	Epic	history	with	twopilot	operations	brought	into	the	world	of	single-pilots	
with	our	Apex	products.	And	now	we've	fine-tuned	those	
capabilities	even	more	with	the	AeroVue	system.	We're	
still	in	the	process	of	refining	some	of	the	displays	for	the	
King	Airs.	There	will	be	more	changes	as	we	go	through	
the	STC	process	over	the	coming	months	to	fine	tune	it	
even	more	for	single-pilot	operations."
A pilot's view of AeroVue
O'Hara	is	one	of	the	fortunate	few	pilots	who	have	actually	had	the	opportunity	to	fly	the	AeroVue.	I	asked,	but	
since	it's	still	in	the	early	development	stages,	the	answer	
was	a	polite	no.
O'Hara	noted	that	from	its	basic	functionality	to	graphics	displays,	the	AeroVue	has	been	developed	for	singlepilot	operations,	a	fact	that	becomes	quite	obvious	the	
moment	you	see	the	way	the	company	has	designed	the	
primary	flight	display.	For	example,	the	company	actually	
put	the	engine	instruments	on	the	PFD.
"Engine	instruments	on	the	PFD	-	that's	the	beauty	of	
this	system,	and	I	think	it	will	be	one	of	the	selling	points	
over	other	systems,"	O'Hara	said.	"The	engine	instruments	
are	not	only	located	in	the	pilot's	primary	field-of-view,	
they	are	large	and	easy	to	read,	and	below	them	are	the	primary	avionics	frequencies	displays.	
"The	AeroVue's	12-inch	diagonal	size	gives	us	plenty	
of	room	to	locate	the	displays	where	they	are	best	viewed	
by	the	pilot.	From	the	pilot's	perspective,	not	having	to	
look	out	of	the	critical	scan	area	to	see	the	engine	instruments	during	climb	out	reduces	workload	in	critical	phases	
of	flight.	When	you're	taking	off	from	a	high,	hot	airport	
and	you	have	to	watch	ITT	and	torque	all	the	way	up,	you	
don't	want	to	have	to	go	searching	for	the	information	
on	the	MFD.	Why	would	I	want	to	look	over	at	the	MFD	
when	it's	now	right	in	front	of	me?"
While	engine	instrument	position	is	a	point	of	preference,	
one	nice	feature	is	the	package's	standard	SmartView	Synthetic	Vision	system.	
"What	you	need	to	know	about	SmartView	is	that	unlike	
other	synthetic	vision	systems,	ours	has	been	designed	to	be	
a	HUD	(heads	up	display)	first	and	then	the	synthetic	vision	
display	is	put	behind	the	HUD	symbology	on	the	PFD,"	
O'Hara	explained.	"Think	of	it	as	a	'heads	down'	HUD.	For	
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example,	you	have	the	flight	path	and	acceleration	chevron	
all	the	time	on	the	display.	There's	a	lot	of	information	right	
there	that's	very	easy	to	use."
O'Hara	said	one	feature	that	some	pilots	will	find	different	
is	that	the	AeroVue	-	like	all	Honeywell	displays	-	uses	a	
track-based	display	as	opposed	to	a	heading-based	reference.	
"Once	your	wheels	are	off	the	ground,	you	transition	to	
flying	a	track,"	he	said.	"With	AeroVue,	your	track	is	always	
in	the	center	of	the	display.	It	sounds	complicated,	but	it's	
really	intuitive.	Every	pilot	I've	flown	with	likes	this	track	
display	better	than	heading.	Once	you	see	it,	it's	an	'aha'	
moment."
Dykmann	added	that	AeroVue	comes	with	a	brand	new	
digital	autopilot.	"It	became	clear	during	our	voice-of-thecustomer	interviews	that,	while	many	pilots	felt	their	current	
autopilots	were	good,	they	are	getting	long	in	the	tooth	and	
lack	the	new	features	and	functions	that	these	pilot/owners	
wanted,"	he	said.	"They	would	be	willing	to	pay	a	bit	more	
if	the	package	included	a	brand	new	autopilot	that	had	a	
warranty	and	does	all	the	cool	things	like	WAAS	approaches	
and	roll-steering.	So	obviously,	we	decided	to	include	a	new	
autopilot	in	the	AeroVue	retrofit."
With	regards	to	the	legacy	of	the	new	autopilot,	Dykmann	
stressed	that,	like	the	other	components	of	the	AeroVue	
retrofit,	the	core	elements	of	the	systems'	digital	autopilot	
have	already	accumulated	thousands	of	hours	of	flight	time	
in	a	variety	of	Part	25	aircraft.	Proven	components	in	a	new	
package	is	what	it	is.	
One-thumb control
While	BendixKing's	standard	out-of-the-box	AeroVue	
retrofit	is	a	fine	package,	there	is	one	option	I	can't	see	any	
aircraft	owner	not	including	in	their	panel	-	it's	the	Cursor	
Control	Device.	This	small,	pedestal-mounted	controller	
gives	pilots	click-to-control	access	to	practically	every	interactive	function	on	the	panel.	It	can	be	used	as	a	stand-alone	
unit	or	in	combination	with	the	display	buttons	and/or	FMS	
keyboard	and	joystick.	It's	all	up	to	the	pilot.	
"Certainly	this	(CCD)	will	be	a	unique	feature	to	our	
King	Airs,	though	it's	already	well	proven	through	years	of	
use	in	a	variety	of	business	jets,"	Dykmann	said.	"We've	
learned	that	since	it	provides	a	solid,	pedestal-mounted	hold,	
it	makes	routine	functions	much	easier	to	accomplish	in	turbulence	when	compared	to	trying	to	push	buttons	or	using	
the	FMS	keyboard."
O'Hara	said,	"I	think	using	the	CCD	is	the	way	most	pilots	will	want	to	operate	the	INAV	(interactive	navigation)	
capabilities.	The	pilot's	right	hand	just	naturally	settles	to	its	
location	on	the	pedestal.	You	can	use	it	probably	85	percent	
of	the	time	to	control	the	functions	on	the	panel.	It	makes
Avionics News October 2014

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