Avionics News June 2014 - 21

Airbus A319 suffered an extensive loss of electrical power
course deviation indication from navigation sources, as
that blanked the PFDs and forced it to fly on the standard,
well as indications for the instrument landing system's
analog, standby stack. The crew struggled to maintain
localizer and glideslope transmitters and/or a GPS navigaheading and course using the standby stack, and investitor's indicators for WAAS-guided instrument approaches.
gators with the UK's Air Accident Investigations Branch
For factory-equipped and upgraded panels alike, the
discovered the flight crew had no formal training on flydominant standby package consists of the FAA-mandated
ing the A320-family of airliners solely by reference to the
minimum: the attitude-reference system with roll, pitch
standby stack.
and slip/skid; an altimeter; and an airspeed indicator. For
Logically, the AAIB recommended pilots be trained
upgraded aircraft, owners often opt to retain the original
more rigorously to fly with sole
AI, ASI and VSI.
reference to standby instruments.
In many cases of factory-installed
That was 2008. In 2014, the isglass in Part 23 aircraft, the factoryHELPING GLASSsue is one on the radar of safety
selected standby pack consists of
COCKPIT OWNERS
authorities focused on business
three small analog variants of the
and general aviation, where the
larger analog instruments displaced or
M O V E TO WA R D
changeover to glass-panel avionreplaced by the glass-panel avionics.
A S M A R T E R S TA N D B Y
ics is in full swing.
The recommendation for best-backOne issue with this training
up for glass panels are, essentially, all
S TA C K I S A N
stems from the differences bein favor of standby gear that visibly
O P P O R T U N I T Y TO
tween the digitally generated priand operationally matches the main
mary instrumentation of the glass
panel gear it backs up.
BUILD BUSINESS
display the pilot uses full time.
AND ENCOURAGE
Pilots not only need more and
Minimums: PFD-matching
S A F E R F LY I N G .
better training on the glass stacks
attitude, airspeed, altitude
themselves, they also need standThe beauty of a standby pack that
by stacks that mimic the primary
looks and works like a PFD stems
glass they back up.
from its consistency; they don't force
Through the magic of digital sensors and graphic comthe pilot to revert to a more-scattered scan and decipher the
puter displays, PFDs combine into one display space all
varied indications of three instruments. This consistency
six indications of the old analog six-pack with each preenhances their utility for a pilot facing a panel-failure crisis.
sentation displayed in its own way with its own colors.
The past decade has seen a variety of one-box standby
The PFDs common to today's glass cockpits show all
packages that deliver true redundancy thanks to their
six indications needed - airspeed, attitude, altitude, vertiself-contained designs. In polling pilots for this story - a
cal speed, gyro compass heading and rate of turn.
mix of backgrounds and experience in glass cockpits - a
Airspeed and altitude typically display as vertical tapes
set of minimum wants emerged when discussing a standflanking the attitude indication, slip/skid indication, turn
by instrument package to back up a glass stack.
coordinator and a gyro compass pointer and scale. Further,
many integrated avionics package's PFDs also display
Continued on following page
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2014

Avionics News June 2014

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