But Avidyne is also a hard- takes the airplane down to a enablers to prevent controlled ware manufacturer and has safe altitude in case of cabin flight into terrain,” said Greg worked on solving some of the decompression. “You hope you Plantz, SmartDeck director of difficult problems that result never need it,” he said, “but marketing and sales. Pilots need in accidents, especially LOC, knowing it’s there is quite the more than just an audio alert, currently at the top of the list peace of mind.” he said. “It’s one thing to see the COCKPIT AVIONICS of accident causes. A problem Taws display. But instead of say- with most autopilot systems is Simpler Interfaces ing ‘terrain,’ maybe ‘pull up four that they slavishly follow pilots’ Garmin is moving swiftly into degrees or turn left 20 degrees’ commands. As Schwinn pointed simplifying the way pilots inter- would be better.” Then the soft- Technology for the pilot’s sake out, in a typical general avia- act with avionics, starting with ware would monitor the pilot’s tion airplane, if the pilot selects touch control on its GTN-series actions to make sure the poten- What if technology could help pilots recover an airplane when it is clear (to the software) heading and altitude hold, then navigators and G2000 through tial danger has been averted. that the pilot’s actions are trending toward an accident? the power is cut, “it’s going to G5000 touchscreen-controlled “We’re developing a way for trim full aft and stall the air- flight decks. Voice control is also pilots and cockpits to interact to plane. This is not a good thing available now, via Garmin’s Teli- prevent loss of control and loss by Matt Thurber to do.” (Of course this can hap- gence system. Teligence currently of situational awareness,” said pen in larger airplanes, too.) allows pilots to control the GMA Patrick Champagne, vice presi- Avidyne’s DFC90/100 auto- 350 audio panel and is finding dent of cockpits and systems pilot includes envelope protec- a market in helicopters, where integration at CMC. “The brain Consider the Air France 447 and Colgan Air 3407 accidents. For the Colgan accident, tech- iPad’s internal gyros, acceler- beginning of what Laminar plans tion (EP) and envelope alerting pilots generally need to keep both of the pilot has not grown, but In the Air France accident, the Airbus A330 stalled into the ocean nology already exists and has ometers and GPS. The exter- for its artificial intelligence (AI) (EA). The alerting feature works hands on the controls. “It allows the density and complexity of from cruise altitude, following icing of the pitot sensors. The con- bubbled up from the lighter end nal AHRS works better, but cockpit aid. Next up is conflict whether or not the autopilot is the pilot to stay focused on fly- systems has. We need to make the sensus is that the pilots just needed to move the control stick for- of the market, in autopilots from even without the Levil unit, the alerting using ADS-B IN sensors on, warning the pilot of exces- ing the aircraft,” said Jim Alpiser, right integration of information ward to unload the wing and the Airbus would have resumed flying. Avidyne and Garmin. Rock- iPhone/iPad’s sensors can pro- (weather and traffic) and Aspen’s sive bank, overspeed or if the air- director of aviation aftermarket to point out to [the pilot] the rel- In the Colgan accident, the pilots failed to add power after their well Collins is developing a loiter vide usable guidance, according Connected Panel as a data source plane is slowing below 1.2 VSO. sales, “and worry less about inter- evant stuff.” To that end, CMC Dash 8-400 slowed while leveling off during approach. The Dash mode that could help. “Step one to Laminar Avionics, as long as for engine problems. “All of these With EP, the autopilot will keep acting with the avionics.” has been working with the Cana- into the future,” said Bob Ellis, pitch and bank are kept within things and much, much more are the airplane within a safe flying “We think there are tremen- dian military to help pilots with 8 was on autopilot, and the autopilot kicked off when it reached Rockwell Collins director of certain parameters and the air- in the works,” according to Lam- envelope if those parameters are dous opportunities to reduce safe cockpit automation pro- a limit, handing the pilots an airplane that was about to go out flight information solutions mar- plane is flown steadily. inar, “with the underlying rule exceeded. In the case of leveling pilot workload, increase situa- cedures. “If this happened,” he of control. Investigators concluded that the captain reacted incor- keting, “are developments occur- During flight, Xavion contin- that all information is assessed off without adding power, EP tional awareness and go a long said, “this is how the automation rectly, and the Dash 8 stalled and crashed. ring today in the area of flight uously calculates the airplane’s by the AI and presented in the would simply allow the airplane’s way to making [flying] safer,” reacts and this is what the pilot In both cases, the pilots were not ready for what happened, and control modes, particularly in gliding capability, and the display most user-friendly format, just as AOA to decrease to maintain 1.2 said Stone. should be doing. Is there some- they did not figure out what was wrong in time to prevent an acci- single-pilot operations or [in the is color-coded to show not only a good copilot would present that VSO and not let the airplane stall. In a facility in Ottawa, Can- thing that the cockpit could sug- dent. Also, it is assumed that the airplane designers didn’t antici- event of an] incapacitated crew- the area within gliding range information to you.” Avidyne’s autopilots also ada, a team of about 15 experts gest to him to help him under- pate those occurrences or the way the pilots reacted. No designer member.” If the pilot loses spatial but also the airports that can be offer an unusual attitude is thinking through all these stand better? The availability of awareness, for example, pushing reached without power (green). Key Information recovery button that levels issues to help Esterline CMC data is just one factor; know- can anticipate every way that a system or a pilot can mess up. But the loiter mode button automati- Airports on the edge of gliding All the data already flow- the wings, zeroes out the pitch Electronics develop new prod- ing what to look for–a relation what if technology could help the pilot rescue the situation when cally flies the airplane away from range are yellow, and red airports ing through modern avionics and maintains airspeed within ucts that meet the safety and between variables–is important.” it is clear (to the software) that the pilot isn’t about to resolve the the navigation track and into a are beyond reach. systems is the key to enhancing a safe range. This button can usability needs of modern pilots. The ultimate goal is what problem? If this is even possible, does it make sense? And, what holding pattern. “It allows the In case of an engine failure, safety, assuming this data can even recover control of an air- CMC product director of would something like this look like in practice? crew to get ahead of the aircraft,” pushing the red “Hoops” button be captured and used, according plane from an inverted attitude, advanced vision systems Marc To answer these questions, AIN interviewed avionics manufac- he said. “We’ll see this in air- shows a path defined by hoops to Dan Schwinn, president and according to Schwinn. Bouliane calls an enhanced situa- GARMIN turers and asked how their products can help pilots and also what planes in the near term.” (like highway-in-the-sky) that CEO of Avidyne. An example Garmin has developed the tion display. This display, he said, Garmin’s ESP works with the autopilot on or off and assists the pilot in maintaining a safe pitch and roll attitude and airspeed, including low-speed protection. developments in their back-room laboratories are under way to Also promising are systems lead to the runway end. A bug on is the Connected Panel system electronic stability and protec- “really talks to the pilot’s being that can guide or fly an airplane the speed indicator is set to what developed by Aspen Avionics, tion (ESP) system. ESP works able to see at the right time what address these problems. from the point of total engine Laminar calls “nominal glide” which allows avionics data to with the autopilot on or off he needs to see. Whether it’s 2-D data at pilots isn’t conducive because they can be delivered failure to the end of the near- speed, which is halfway between be delivered to external devices and helps the pilot maintain a nav, terrain charts with FMS, to safety, and Aspen and Con- much faster because no certifica- est runway. “We’re looking at an best glide and worst glide config- such as an iPad, which can then safe pitch and roll attitude and synthetic and enhanced vision, nected Panel partners are work- tion is involved. Aspen’s Hayden Simple Solutions? Instead of adding yet more algorithm,” said Matt Carrico, urations. An energy meter shows leverage that data for other uses. airspeed, including low-speed the whole package is how do we ing on delivering useful infor- suggested a product that uses Imagine, in the case of Air alerts and more confusion to the Rockwell Collins senior engi- whether the aircraft needs more Avidyne is a Connected Panel protection.