EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008 - (Page 40)

EBACE 2008 Putting Terrain in the Picture for Pilots February snow swirled around the hangars and aircraft at Morristown Municipal Airport as we taxied out for takeoff in a Gulfstream 450 to see what synthetic vision can do for business jet pilots. The ride on this proverbial “dark and stormy night” was tailor-made to show off a new situational awareness tool from Honeywell and Gulfstream. I was in the jump seat for takeoff on a bitter cold night with high winds, driving snow showers and gusts peaking later in the evening around 50 mph. By the time we returned to Morristown a few hours later the parking lot was coated in crusty ice. It was enough to keep any pilot on his toes, but I was flying with three of the best: Honeywell chief pilot, fixed-wing operations, Ronald Weight in the left seat, Honeywell chief pilot for flight operations Jary Engels in the right, and Gulfstream senior experimental test pilot Tom Horne looking over my shoulder. We had great experience on the flight deck and the new Integrated Primary ‘Virtual VFR’—Honeywell IPFD provides synthetic vision, now FAA-approved, to Gulfstream G450 and G550 pilots. An extended runway centerline also helps show Flight Display (IPFD) showing the synthetic for the climb. The terrain is color-coded so it looks the same where the airport is nestled in the valley and vision terrain as a backdrop to the PFD symway as it does to pilots on maps. And the reso- when I finally began to see the ‘rabbit’ approach bology on the panel. Synthetic vision is a computerized 3-D view lution is quite accurate—especially out to 12 nmi lighting system through the windscreen with of the terrain ahead of the aircraft created from where there is an elevation in every 600 x flashers running left to right toward the runway, the Honeywell database that has accumulated 600-foot area of terrain (6 arc second data). From the virtual picture matched up perfectly with the 800 million flight hours in support of its 12 to 35 miles the accuracy is one elevation every real world outside. This was the “I get it!” EGPWS. The IPFD creates a ‘virtual VFR’ envi- 1,200 x 1,200-foot area (12 arc second data). moment for me—this type of display really During our flight to Vermont, higher terrain works. And the high terrain behind the airport ronment to show the pilot the terrain and was visible on the IPFD while out the windscreen it was shrouded by low hanging clouds. “I was in the jump seat for takeoff on a bitter cold It took Gulfstream and Honeywell about two years to certify the system, partly because the night with high winds, driving snow showers and FAA has not yet published its own guidance on gusts peaking later in the evening around 50 mph. how to certify synthetic vision on a Part 25 airBy the time we returned to Morristown a few hours craft. Now that the FAA has approved it on the Gulfstream G450 and G550, the company will later the parking lot was coated in crusty ice.” certify it for all of its aircraft. Also displayed on the flight was Gulfstream’s obstacles ahead regardless of the time of day or started to come into view as we headed north just-certified Enhanced Vision System (EVS) II, weather conditions. Obstacles of 200 feet and away from the flatlands of New Jersey. The ridges an improved FLIR camera that will be installed higher are presented and the EGPWS warns and valleys showed up clearly on the synthetic on all production aircraft to replace the original pilots if lower obstacles are nearby. vision display. But the most dramatic demon- system that has been in use now for about seven Gulfstream and Honeywell have elected to stration came during our approach to the years. The new EVS is 22 pounds lighter and has include performance-based, head-up display cues Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport. four times the computational power and four on the head-down PFD display, a 14.1-inch diag- There, the dark valley we were flying down on times the memory of the original system. In all, the latest Gulfstream PlaneView cockonal liquid crystal display. The HUD symbology an approach offset about 40° from the runway allows a pilot to tell where the aircraft is going showed up clearly in the synthetic vision display. pit is a combination of lots of things that have in an intuitive way. During our departure from And the flight path marker showed where we been on pilots’ wish lists for decades, but are Morristown it was easy to see by watching the were headed relative to the terrain—a picture now out of the laboratory and performing in the real world. flight path marker that we had abundant energy pilots had to create in their heads in the past. —David Hughes 40 May 21, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008

A318 Elite is on a Roll A Circle Around London P&WC Deliveries Triple Avanti Sees Sales Shift RUAG Eyes Needy Cabins Global Gets Even NICEr Embraer Beefs Up Support Honeywell ‘Virtual VFR’ Signature Europe Grows Gestair Seeks to Double Aero-Dienst Turns 50 Gama Doubles in Size All is Not Woe with Oil Ocean Sky is Aggressive

EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008

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