Avionics News March 2016 - 66

SANDEL'S AVILON

Continued from page 65

the envelope on ease of installation
and interfacing, so we had a great
starting point."
While it's one of those things that
must be seen to be appreciated, simply put, all of the various wires and
components that make up the Avilon
package mount on racks behind the
panel. Of course, that means all the
boxes are marvels of miniaturization.
But, as Block explained, making
tiny boxes was just one of the installation challenges to be solved. Next
came how to eliminate all the wiring.
"Avilon's wiring is quite a bit different than what people conceive as
needed for a typical integrated panel
installation," he said. "From the way

the data busses are done, all of our
components and displays just plug
in with simple cables. No complex
wiring bunches, looms, or multiconductor bundles that you always find
behind the panel."
He also said the removal of all
the typical "rat's nest" of wiring will
save up to 150 pounds of weight.
"Our wiring is absolutely simple,"
Block said. "There are probably
no more than a dozen cables in the
entire installation. Nobody believes
it until they see it. But once people
actually do, they finally understand
how we can achieve the low installation times we are quoting."
Block explained that another way
Sandel was able to create its innovative solution was to start from
scratch at each installation. The

Avilon system does not use anything that is currently in the airplane
except the weather radar receiver/
transmitter, standby attitude and
the autopilot servos. Sandel makes
everything else in-house.
"As part of our decision to move
ahead, we had to essentially start
with the design of a new line of avionics, including our own flat panel
displays and RF components - ILS
receiver, CNI transceivers, Mode
S transponder, ADS-B Out and In,
autopilot controller, TAWS, AHARS
- everything you'd find in a newgeneration turboprop or business
jet," Block said. "We even developed
our own flight management system.
It will be the most sophisticated
navigation and control system anyone has ever seen in this class of
aircraft."
But wait, there's more
Block said that along with reinnovating all of the standard avionics and their various interconnection
requirements, his team felt that starting anew was the ideal time to introduce a new component they believe
will make a major contribution to
increasing the safety of single-pilot
flight operations: Sandel's Path
Guidance Panel.
"One thing that stuck out during our discussions about what was
wrong with the current state of avionics was in the ways pilots interface
with these technologies," he stated.
"In analyzing accidents, it became
obvious that, in many approach-tolanding incidents, the cases were
highly related to the inability of the
pilot to understand what their aircraft's 'automation' was doing at that
given time."
An example Block shared was
a single-pilot shooting an ILS
approach. Suppose for the last 500
times, the autopilot has captured the
glideslope. But for whatever reason,

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