18
GA
/ Vol. 5 / No.4 / APRIL 2013
by Mike Wright
World News
Garmin International Inc. announced
during February this year that
Piper Aircraft had selected the
G1000 all-glass, integrated flight
deck for its twin-class Seneca V
model, introduced at the Australian
International Airshow and Aerospace
and Defence Exposition.
Garmin added that they had a
strong, long-standing partnership
with Piper Aircraft, and were
honored by the confidence they
continue to show in Garmin avionics.
With the G1000-equipped
Seneca V, all new-production
Piper MClass and Twin-Class
aircraft will now feature a
Garmin integrated flight deck.
The G1000 integrates all primary
flight information, navigation
data, communications, terrain
awareness, traffic, weather, and
engine data on three 10.4-inch,
high-resolution displays. The
G1000's reliable Attitude and
Heading Reference System (AHRS)
provides accurate, digital output
and referencing of the aircraft's
attitude, rate, and acceleration data.
The G1000 also incorporates a
large moving map, and supports
a wide array of safety enhancing
features, including Synthetic Vision
Technology (SVTTM), Terrain
Awareness and Warning System
(TAWS), datalink weather, Garmin's
traffic awareness and collision
avoidance systems, and more. ·
Piper select G1000
for twin-class Seneca V
Cockpit iPads are the latest idea that
is becoming popular in the aviation
world, which replaces paper charts
and manuals. This technology
will revolutionize the way pilots
conduct their flying as well as make
it easier and safer for the pilots
in the industry. The technology
along with other automation frees
up pilots to be better managers.
The iPad has been used in
General Aviation for the last while
in conjunction with its paper backup
counterpart, which is mandated
by the CAA. Applications such as
Jeppesen Mobile TC and ForeFlight
Mobile were the first applications
made available to consumers for
the iPad. These applications include
everything that would be on the
paper charts plus aviation tools
including navigation charts, taxi
procedures, weather maps, GPS,
Minimum Equipment List, Company
Policy Manuel, Federal Aviation
Regulations and flight controls.
Although these tools have been
used in the private sector, the use of
the iPad in commercial aviation is
just taking flight. The main push to
use the iPad as a navigation tool is the
practicality of the product. The iPad
would replace about 15 kgs of paper
charts used by pilots that include flight
manuals, approach plates, navigation
charts, policy manuals, minimum
equipment list and taxi charts. Major
airlines are still mainly paper based,
which includes some who have fleets
of 900 plus planes. This translates to
a lot of paper in the form of charts
that could be saved by the iPad. The
switch to an electronic system makes
life easier on the pilot. Heavy bags
will instead be replaced by a 9.5 inch
x 7.31 inch 1.33 pound tablet. Flight
planning is also made easier by the
iPad. To prepare for the flight the pilot
would be able to use one device to
check everything from weather, other
airport facilities and flight plans. All
this makes a pilot's life a lot easier.
One of the first airlines to use the
iPad was Comair (incorporating their
EFB) and 1time and I was fortunate
to have their pilots demonstrate its
capabilities on several occasions
in the front end of their airliners.
Cockpit clutter
The iPad decreases clutter in the
cockpit leading to a safer flight for the
pilot and passengers. Charts are no
longer needed and eliminate the pilots
need to spread the large charts out in
the small cockpit. This helps the pilot
spend more time flying and prevents
the charts from sometimes obstructing
their view. Pilots can quickly swipe
their fingers around the chart as well
as switch charts in matter of seconds.
This gives pilots more time look out
the cockpit window and allows them to
be able to just take a glance instead of
searching around on a map.
A number of issues have been
brought up including Internet
connections on the iPad which cannot
be used at altitudes as pilots would still
be using onboard GPS instruments.
Other safety issues include software
failure and power outage, but in the
three-month tests conducted in the
US, not once did the application shut
off or have a failure. Tests show that
if a failure did take place the program
could reboot in four to six seconds.
Extra iPads in the cockpit are also
being talked about as a backup to a
system failure.
Arrival of iPads
departure of paper
It's almost unheard of for a consumer
product to find a serious role in
aviation, but the Apple iPad has done
just that. It's been only a year and a half
since the now-iconic tablet computer
was introduced, but this is one piece
of commercial, off-the-shelf hardware
that has found favour in the flight
bag. In fact, it has literally become the
flight bag for many operators. For the
past decade and a half, laptops have
FLIGHT DECK
Use of i-pads
slowly infiltrated cockpits, converting
important data to digital format and
reducing many aircraft manuals, pilot
logbooks and other documents to
ballast in the bottom of a Jepp bag. But
the dead weight in those well-worn
flight bags consisted of essential
aeronautical charts. It's estimated that
charts covering the entire globe weigh
40 kgs, so it was no wonder that the
electronic flight bag (EFB), a three- to
five-pound computer that could store
all essential aircraft documents and
paper charts, emerged. And maybe
more important to pilots, updates could
be performed online with just a few
mouse clicks.
The problem was that gaining
approval for such devices involved
significant time, effort and money. And
EFBs often were not equal to the latest
computer products in terms of battery
life, capacity and screen quality.
iPad - the EFB for every pilot
Enter the iPad, which weighs less
than two pounds and features a large,
high-resolution display, 10-hour battery
life and is easy to use, just like other
revolutionary Apple products, such as
the iPhone.
When introduced in April 2010,
customers and application, or `app'
developers poured in from all over
the world, and from just about every
industry. The availability of a variety
of useful apps skyrocketed the iPad's
success, particularly in aviation, since
the iPad is a natural electronic flight
bag. Not only are iPads available at a
fraction of the cost of EFBs or the first
approved tablets, but also the software
programs and chart subscriptions are
priced such that even operators of light
aircraft are jumping on the bandwagon.
One Bonanza pilot said, "It's like
getting the whole candy machine with
one quarter."
It seems like the iPad is exploding
in the corporate arena, no matter
what's in the panel. Business pilots
all carry iPads, and it's especially
useful as backup if there are two in
the cockpit. If it had only charts and
approach plates, the iPad would still
make a worthy addition to anyone's
flight kit. But the variety of software
packages available makes it almost
indispensably. Apps include flight
planning programs, weather graphics,
weight-and-balance calculators, E6B
computers and various other goodies.
Business aviation consultants
say the appeal for business aircraft
operators is that they can carry more
data between the airplane and the
hotel, home or office, making flight
preparation more efficient. One of
the best features of the iPad is that
it does literally millions of things.
Pilots can use it to check e-mail,
though common sense (and, no doubt,
the flight department operations
manual) says that Internet access in
flight is verboten. In any case, 3G
iPads that were used on
a 1time airlines MD 83
flying between Johannesburg
and Durban when they were
still operating