Integrated Navigation Data Service are as breathtaking in their utility as thetic vision, or not. An operator does
(INDS) is current, little additional they are in their versatility. Overall, not need to first upgrade to Echo
technician preparation is necessary. the updates reduce pilot workload before incorporating the standard fea-
Technicians should recognize that and increase fuel and time efficiency. tures of Foxtrot.
some of the modules are changing Margins of safety are increased with While FAA certification for
from EASy to EASy II and that the much improved situational awareness. Gulfstream’s Certification Foxtrot was
functions located on some of those While much discussion is devoted to announced at this year’s NBAA con-
modules are moving to different the industry leading technologies that vention in Orlando, it is not currently
modules. As usual, it is essential to come with this Primus Epic upgrade, available while it completes in-service
make sure that the operator’s aircraft they are incomplete without acknowl- evaluation. Cooreman said both
maintenance manuals are updated as a edging the new regulatory require- Gulfstream and a number of unidenti-
result of the change. Gardner went on ments that are also addressed, which fied customer aircraft are flying under
to note that no additional test equip- we’ll discuss shortly. the program currently, “so we can get
ment is required. “Depending on the Both flight decks incorporate the a lot of time under our belt quickly.”
enhanced communication features Honeywell SmartView synthetic vision Cooreman also reflected posi-
enabled by the operator,” observed system and tively on the PlaneConnect enhance-
Gardner, “additional maintenance paperless charts and maps and ment that became available with
procedures may be required to ensure offer other safety features and Certification Delta. The airplane real-
that these functions are working.” enhanced navigational capability. For ly is at “the high level of an airliner
But these requirements should be the PlaneView Platform, Gulfstream’s as far as its ability to communicate
addressed in the aircraft maintenance brand name for the Honeywell Primus with the mechanic,” said Cooreman.
manual supplements. Epic, there are a number of different PlaneConnect is a feature that sends
components included in Certification a maintenance status message as the
Avoiding incursions Foxtrot that are upgrades from plane begins its descent. “It typically
There are readiness enhancements to Certification Delta, the current con- transmits an e-mail to the director of
be enjoyed by maintenance, includ- figuration of most cockpits. “But if maintenance and identifies any alerts
ing the reduction of loading times you have Certification Echo,” said that may have been generated dur-
because data loading procedures John Cooreman, Gulfstream National ing the flight.” These alerts may or
have been improved with DLS ver- Sales Manager based in Denver, “you may not have required notifying the
sion 5. “Certification Foxtrot and have synthetic vision, and if you don’t, flight crew.
EASy II both offer enhanced synthetic you’re at Delta.” “It can also send a message to our
vision to the crew,” said Gardner. The It’s that simple. With pretty much tech ops,” said Cooreman, “because
benefit for maintenance crews is that all of the affected Gulfstream fleet they have the fleet knowledge and
during ‘taxi’ and ‘run’ operations, the already at the Certification Delta level, can make judgments about the sig-
new features will improve the situ- upgrading to Foxtrot gives them the nificance of any individual message.
ational awareness of the technician option to include Echo, activating syn- That is just a huge tool,” Cooreman
while they taxi to or from the engine
run-up areas. “This will help avoid
runway incursion incidences.”
Honeywell is quick to note that
most of the benefits in Certification
Foxtrot and EASy II are directed at
the flight crew and flight operational
improvements and enhancements.
For the maintenance technician,
the improvements in data loading
and changes to the central mainte-
nance system include changes to the
Loadable Diagnostic Information (LDI)
database, which improves many of
the maintenance screens and fault
diagnostic capabilities of the system
on the aircraft.
As became evident in our discus-
sions with both OEMs, Gulfstream and
Dassault are taking different paths
with respect to standard features
ABOVE: Required Navigation Performance on Honeywell’s EASy II flight deck allows Dassault operators to more ef-
ficiently route into airports, around obstacles, terrain or other aircraft with lower minima. EASy II shows Radius-to-Fix
and options. These enhancements (RF) legs into Runway 21 in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the aircraft faces a mountain on its last turn.
Aviation Maintenance |
avmain-mag.com | December 2009/January 2010 27
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