Grand glass

The R44 Grand cockpit features two large 21x29cm colour LCD screens installed in either landscape or portrait orientation on the instrument panel.

One screen is set up as the primary flight display (PFD) showing flight instrumentation, engine and rotor information in a combined stacked layout.

The second screen is utilised as a multi function display (MFD), capable of showing multiple GPS and navigation inputs coupled to a large format moving map, terrain proximity warning, traffic collision avoidance and vision from VGA or FLIR cameras.

ASAP Avionics completed its first Grand upgrade on a R44 Astro, Canadian registered C-FMBO, in January 2007 while the helicopter was in maintenance during a 2200 hour inspection.

Installing the ICDS into an R44 costs approximately US$64,950 (A$68,860) and takes approximately 48 man hours to complete.

glass The installation time is claimed to be the longest duration the R44 will be off line due to its avionics system.

Sagem say its ICDS has a calculated mean time between failures of 10,000 hours, with repair times quoted as being less than 30 minutes.

The ICDS installation offers a weight saving of about 4. 5 kg to the R44’s all up weight and can be made NVG capable.

ASAP attained a Canadian STC (applicable for Australian installations) for the Grand avionics upgrade in October 2007 and is close to achieving FAA and EASA approvals.

“Several operators in Australia have already shown an interest and would like to look at having it installed in their machines,” said Mark Sylvester, president of ASAP Avionics.

ASAP’s R44 Grand was displayed recently at Heli-Expo 2008 in Houston, Texas, where it attracted plenty of attention from the international helicopter community.

“So far we have 27 customers waiting for this upgrade in the US. Customers are diversified between private guys who want the latest and greatest, who of course can see the enhanced safety given by the system, and also training schools who want to incorporate glass cockpit training at a marketable price,” said Sylvester.

A Canadian oil and gas pipeline survey operator recently elected to have the Grand upgrade carried out on its R44s to enable more efficient inspections and to save on training time for its pilots learning the pipeline layout.

“Because of the system’s ability to display video the operator will be able to integrate several surveillance systems such as FLIR, thermal imaging, gas leak detection, record the flight for post-flight review, carry out flight logging and show the whole ‘spiders web’ of pipelines overlaid on to the moving map for easier navigation,” Sylvester noted.

From a training perspective, ab-initio trainee pilots will likely benefit from early EFIS exposure providing them with experience on the functionality of interactive LCD screens – a feature becoming more common in modern and larger helicopter types.

Installing a Garmin 430 GPS during the avionics upgrade can convert a standard VFR R44 or R22 into an IFR platform without any major rewiring.

“Both the upgraded R44 and R22 are touted as being perfect as IFR trainers providing the cheapest way to train for the next generation glass cockpits,” said Sylvester.

ASAP had been working with Las Vegas based Silver State Helicopters on installing the Sagem ICDS into a R22 Beta II to create an IFR trainer. However, Silver State Helicopters ceased its operations after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on February 4.

“We are still pursuing the R22 ‘glass’ solution with input from various other flight training schools and hope to add that to the existing STC this year.

“At the moment we’re working with an S-76 operator to provide annual upgrade training for their fleet. At $700 (US) per hour the R44 is a little cheaper to train on than the S-76, which runs at about $3500 an hour,” said Sylvester.

ASAP is considering the installation of an ICDS into Robinson’s new RR300 turbine powered R66. This will offer students pilots EFIS experience on what is expected to be an affordable single turbine platform.