Avionics News May 2015 - 63

Advertisers Index
Aero Standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

POINT OF COMMUNICATION
Continued from page 4

the signalling between boxes. Or if
not, there were adapter boxes available
to allow a Collins box to talk with a
BendixKing instrument, for example.
At the big end, in the airline world and
to some extent the heavy corporate
world, this still exists with ARINC
specs defining the interfaces to allow
some mix and match and interchangeability. However, in our segment of the
market, we are increasingly seeing the
cockpit locked up by a single supplier.
Here in Australia, we recently have
been carrying out ADS-B upgrades
to meet a mandate that is several
years earlier than the 2020 mandate
in the U.S. In most cases, it has been
a straightforward job, accomplished
by removing an existing ATCRBS
transponder, replacing it with a Mode
S transponder, and wiring in a GPS
source. However, when we came to
the integrated cockpits, we had to
advise the owners that there was nothing we could do until the manufacturer
of the existing equipment provided an
upgrade. The owners had to go to our
regulator and gain an exemption from
mandate compliance pending availability of the manufacturer's upgrade.
On the latest cockpits where most
of the control of peripheral systems
is managed by the core software, the
upgrade is contingent on a recertification of the core operating software of
the system. This can only be provided
by the airframe manufacturer, because
that same core software also is responsible for autoflight and primary flight
instruments. So there are big delays
and big costs.
My crystal ball suggests that this
trend will continue and that there will be
less and less that we, as avionics installers and maintainers, will be able to offer
in support of our customers. In another
generation, we may find ourselves completely locked out. We already have seen

this with the support our workshops can
provide moving from component level
repair to board swapout. Our workshop
skill set is decreasing.
I believe there is a lesson we can
learn from smartphones that could be
usefully applied to our industry. The
smartphone manufacturers have deliberately set out to make their systems
accessible. They provide software
development kits, and they publish the
APIs that detail the "hooks" for app
developers to interface into the smartphone. The Android-based devices
even have full open-source accessibility to the core software. At the desktop
and laptop level, both Microsoft and
Apple provide software developers the
ability to write programs that interface
with the Microsoft and Apple operating systems.
I believe it would be beneficial
to both customers and avionics
shops if we were able to encourage
the manufacturers, both airframe
and equipment, to move toward
the model established by the
computer industry. Few of us have
the resources, ability or interest in
accessing the core software at a level
that would require us to develop
software STCs for flight controls.
However, I believe we do have an
interest in seeing system interfaces
made accessible by having the
manufacturers publish the APIs.
This would allow independent
manufacturers to provide an alternate
choice in equipment and functions.
In our free-enterprise world, it's
called competition. And it is good
for the consumer. 

Aerospace Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Aerospace Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Aircraft Electronics Association. . . . . . . 65
Aviation Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
AVweb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
BendixKing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Cal Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Corporate Angel Network . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Dallas Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC
Device Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Duncan Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
EDMO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC
Flight Display Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Flying Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
FreeFlight Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Garmin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Georgetown Instrument Services . . . . . 62
GlobalParts.aero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Gogo Business Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
ICG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics. . . 1
Pacific Southwest Instruments . . . . . . IBC
Peninsula Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
PIC Wire & Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Precision Aviation Group. . . . . . . . . . . . 48
ProCal Laboratories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Staco Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Sun Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

MICHAEL KUS
Vice Chairman, AEA board of directors
Avionics 2000
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Tech-Aid Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Tri-Star Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
True Blue Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
AVIONICS NEWS

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MAY

2015

63
Avionics News May 2015

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