Avionics News March 2016 - 18

PARTIAL-PANEL UPGRADE PLANNING
Continued from page 17

They pick: Flight instruments
versus radios and gauges
The answers vary from pilot to pilot, aircraft to aircraft,
varying by the missions flown, or the use of the aircraft. Does
the pilot want to ditch the spinning-mass gyros and eliminate
aneroids and diaphragms from maintenance concerns?
Maybe it's a move to upgrade the stack to reduce operating
empty weight and the maintenance burdens accompanying
analog instruments.
Could be a desire to simplify
the panel with an electronic cluster
replacing the multitude of engine
instruments and gauges - tachometer, manifold pressure, oil pressure
and temperature, cylinder head and
exhaust-gas temperatures and the
outside thermometer. Or a combination that updates radios, both communications, navigation and surveillance electronics.
With so much equipment and so
many variations available, simply
identifying targets and defining the
finished panel can be a formidable
task.
For some, mission needs help
drive the definition phase; for others,
the age and condition of the candidates for replacement may carry the
most weight.
Helping the client define what's
needed - based on the dominant
flying done - leads to identifying what the client can afford,
when the client can pay for the work, and a time frame for the
various elements.
Little debating, though, that flight-instrument upgrades hold
strong appeal - particularly considering the extra functions
many PFDs offer, compared to the singular functions of the
analog instruments.

multifunction display, Aspen designed its Evolution packages to
replace a pair of instruments by vacating two of the six pack of
flight instruments.
For many operators, owners and pilots, removing an attitude
indicator in the center of the top row of three, along with the
direction gyro (typically the center instrument right below that
AI), provides space to plug in an Aspen Evolution PFD capable
of replacing the entire analog six pack - and with integral
navigation indication for good measure.
Pull one top-row instrument and the second-row instrument
immediately below makes room for one Aspen Evolution pack;
pull two and you make space for both
an Aspen Evolution PFD and an Aspen
Evolution MFD.
Free a third pairing of vertical
holes and the panel provides space for
three Aspen Evolution instruments
- with virtually all the navigation
functions of multiple CDIs, standby
PFD instruments, an always available
moving map display, and redundant
displays for weather, traffic, autopilot
operation - even an angle-of-attack
instrument.
Save for the wiring needed to
connect navigators to the Aspen
displays, no other panel work is
needed to fit up to three in place of an
analog six pack, a couple of navigation
indicators, autopilot control, traffic and
weather inputs, and lightning sensors.
Most of these functions are
available with two displays; with three,
you have added depth and redundancy.
But Aspen is far from the only
option for trading analog flight instruments for a modern digital
PFD. Avidyne, BendixKing, Garmin and a host of experimental
systems exist to accomplish the same ends.
Perhaps none enjoy the form factor advantage that has
helped make for no-panel-modifications-needed installations of
Aspen's equipment, however, since the others tend to come in
wider square or rectangular formats. But the other packages still
deliver similarly powerful functionality and, typically, an empty
weight increase.

BY MAKING
PARTIAL
UPGRADES
PERIODICALLY,

THE AIRCRAFT
OWNER MUST
CLEAR A LOWER
BAR FOR FUNDING
THE DESIRED
UPGRADES.

Flight instrument options: PFDs aplenty
The past 20 years brought a multitude of options for going
digital from analog instruments - basically replacing six
individual dials with one square or rectangular screen.
Arguably, Aspen Avionics may take the prize for its
innovative Evolution System in its various forms.
One form factor device available as either a PFD or
18

avionics news

march

2016

Electronics stack: weighing updated radios,
navigators, everything
ADS-B Out depends on data from a precision position
source - with WAAS GPS the dominant solution. But
many solutions to the ADS-B Out mandate employ WAAS

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News March 2016