Avionics News March 2015 - 27

Aspen's avionics test bed and certification
workhorse is a 1979 Piper Lance.

As it came online, Aspen integrated NextGen technology,
but making connections is part of its DNA.

I

f there is a biologic equivalent to digital technology, it must
surely be the aspen. Unlike analog trees that grow from a single
seed, aspens are a colony, where vast groves propagate from a
single seedling through its root network. Drawing on the inspiration
of its namesake, since its founding in 2004, Aspen Avionics has dedicated itself to connecting open avionics systems that easily integrate
current and future technology associated with the Federal Aviation
Administration's NextGeneration Air Transportation System, better
known as NextGen.
As a company, Aspen was a seedling when the FAA announced
NextGen on Valentine's Day 2007. The following year, the FAA
contracted with Honeywell and Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems to develop and test NextGen's satellite-based technology, which introduced the system that would succeed ground-based

founders was an "idea for what today is the PFD 1000," Uczekaj
said. "It was a good time to start delivering electronic flight displays,
but in September 2008, the economy died. We're proud that we not
only survived those difficult challenges, we grew."
Driving its growth was the company's individual approach to providing digital display technology to aircraft that didn't have - but
seriously wanted - the safety and pilot workload-reducing benefits
it embodied. Affordability was an important part of the equation.
It's personal with Uczekaj, who logs roughly 200 hours a year on
his Diamond DA40. "It's an older one, serial 68," he said. Becoming an aircraft owner was an "eye-opener," and he was "surprised
at the hidden costs to upgrade an airplane; those barriers shouldn't
be there."
Aspen contained installation costs by designing a system that

air traffic control radar, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast.
When John Bethel and Peter Lyons founded the company after
attending a forum in New Mexico dedicated to starting a new company, they were aware of NextGen's eventuality, according to John
Uczekaj, Aspen's chief executive officer. As they developed their
inaugural product, the AT300, they kept NextGen in mind. It existed
then as unofficial possibilities of digital technology, and they "always anticipated the NextGen (equipment) mandate and its benefits
- weather and traffic - knowing that this information would have to
be displayed somehow in the cockpit," Uczekaj said.
Aspen certificated and delivered its Evolution Flight Display
System in 2008, the same year the FAA contractors started making
NextGen's possibilities real. It was the realization of a collaborative effort. The AT300 caught the eye of venture capitalists, including Grand Adventures. One member of its team was a pilot, and
what grew out of inevitable forward-looking conversations with the

worked with a steam gauge six-pack panel. Then it created a cumulative architecture that worked with one, two or three screens.
Given these display options, Aspen had to look differently at how it
presented information to pilots. The FAA provides guidance for the
layout, color and symbols essential for safe flight such as attitude,
altitude and airspeed, Uczekaj said, "but beyond that, there's a fair
amount of flexibility."
To simplify the presentation of data, pilots can use the entire
screen or subdivide it into one or more "tiles" dedicated to traffic or
weather instead of layering this information on a map and letting the
pilot's eye sort it all out. And pilots can customize the number and
distribution of tiles over one, two or three screens, Uczekaj noted,
and arrange them in sequences appropriate to their phase of flight.

Continued on following page
avionics news

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Avionics News March 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News March 2015

Point of Communication
AEA Now
The View from Washington
International News and Regulatory Updates
'Cell'-ular Changes
Member Profile
NextGen Connection
Avionics Corrosion Control
Member Profile
AEA Convention Information
Business Basics
What's Working?
Aviation Insurance 101
Legal Ease
A Conversation With...
Best Advice
Aviation Aces
Honoring our Heroes
What's New
Before & After
Marketplace Classifieds
Avionics News March 2015 - Intro
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover1
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover2
Avionics News March 2015 - 1
Avionics News March 2015 - 2
Avionics News March 2015 - 3
Avionics News March 2015 - Point of Communication
Avionics News March 2015 - 5
Avionics News March 2015 - AEA Now
Avionics News March 2015 - 7
Avionics News March 2015 - 8
Avionics News March 2015 - 9
Avionics News March 2015 - 10
Avionics News March 2015 - 11
Avionics News March 2015 - The View from Washington
Avionics News March 2015 - 13
Avionics News March 2015 - International News and Regulatory Updates
Avionics News March 2015 - 15
Avionics News March 2015 - 16
Avionics News March 2015 - 17
Avionics News March 2015 - 'Cell'-ular Changes
Avionics News March 2015 - 19
Avionics News March 2015 - 20
Avionics News March 2015 - 21
Avionics News March 2015 - Member Profile
Avionics News March 2015 - 23
Avionics News March 2015 - 24
Avionics News March 2015 - 25
Avionics News March 2015 - NextGen Connection
Avionics News March 2015 - 27
Avionics News March 2015 - 28
Avionics News March 2015 - 29
Avionics News March 2015 - 30
Avionics News March 2015 - 31
Avionics News March 2015 - Avionics Corrosion Control
Avionics News March 2015 - 33
Avionics News March 2015 - 34
Avionics News March 2015 - 35
Avionics News March 2015 - 36
Avionics News March 2015 - 37
Avionics News March 2015 - Member Profile
Avionics News March 2015 - 39
Avionics News March 2015 - 40
Avionics News March 2015 - 41
Avionics News March 2015 - 42
Avionics News March 2015 - AEA Convention Information
Avionics News March 2015 - 44
Avionics News March 2015 - 45
Avionics News March 2015 - 46
Avionics News March 2015 - 47
Avionics News March 2015 - 48
Avionics News March 2015 - 49
Avionics News March 2015 - 50
Avionics News March 2015 - 51
Avionics News March 2015 - Business Basics
Avionics News March 2015 - 53
Avionics News March 2015 - 54
Avionics News March 2015 - 55
Avionics News March 2015 - What's Working?
Avionics News March 2015 - 57
Avionics News March 2015 - 58
Avionics News March 2015 - 59
Avionics News March 2015 - Aviation Insurance 101
Avionics News March 2015 - 61
Avionics News March 2015 - Legal Ease
Avionics News March 2015 - 63
Avionics News March 2015 - 64
Avionics News March 2015 - 65
Avionics News March 2015 - A Conversation With...
Avionics News March 2015 - 67
Avionics News March 2015 - Best Advice
Avionics News March 2015 - 69
Avionics News March 2015 - 70
Avionics News March 2015 - 71
Avionics News March 2015 - Aviation Aces
Avionics News March 2015 - 73
Avionics News March 2015 - 74
Avionics News March 2015 - 75
Avionics News March 2015 - Honoring our Heroes
Avionics News March 2015 - 77
Avionics News March 2015 - 78
Avionics News March 2015 - 79
Avionics News March 2015 - What's New
Avionics News March 2015 - 81
Avionics News March 2015 - 82
Avionics News March 2015 - 83
Avionics News March 2015 - 84
Avionics News March 2015 - Before & After
Avionics News March 2015 - Marketplace Classifieds
Avionics News March 2015 - 87
Avionics News March 2015 - 88
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover3
Avionics News March 2015 - Cover4
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